Zombie Bug...What The Heck Was Going On?

Doug Yanega dyanega at mono.icb.ufmg.br
Sun Sep 14 11:16:06 EDT 1997


>I just saw one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my life.  Could
>someone please explain what was going on?
>
>Crossing my driveway was what looked like a wasp-type bug, only it was a
>bit thinner and a shimmering green in color.  He/She was walking backwards
>while leading, by the head, a cockroach.  The cockroach was a good bit
>bigger than the other bug.
[snip]
>What was going on??? I'm assuming the waspy guy put some kind of poison
>into the cockroach... but what kind of poison makes a cockroach zombie?
>It was clearly alive and moving...but seemed to be lacking any sense of
>self-preservation.

It *was* a wasp, in the family Ampulicidae (sometimes a subfamily of
Sphecidae). You've answered your own question, too, because the roach is
stung, and the venom is (evidently) just strong enough to prevent voluntary
locomotion - not really much different from many other predatory wasps with
paralytic or semi-paralytic venom. Ampulicids occur almost everywhere, but
they tend to be rather rare.

Aloha,

Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
phone: 031-448-1223, fax: 031-44-5481  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
                  http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
  "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
        is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82




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