Emerald cockroach wasp

Jewel wasp ( Ampulex compressa )

The jewel wasp ( Ampulex compressa ) is a parasitic wasp living grave of the family of Ampulicidae. It occurs in the tropical areas of India, Africa and the Pacific. Your breeding behavior is unique.

Features

The jewel wasp is one of the larger species of the genus Ampulex. Females are up to 22 millimeters long, the males remain quite small. Particularly striking is her blue - green shiny metallic body and the red-colored legs of the rear and middle pairs of legs.

The females have some adjustments that are in large part for their breeding behavior of importance. These include the laterally flattened ( compress ) Gaster, the nose-like end plate and the sickle- shaped, in addition upturned mandibles. The females have a poisonous sting, which is absent in the males.

Dissemination

Originally native mainly in the Eastern Region of Paläotropis, the jewel wasp today in Australia and the Malay Archipelago as well as on many islands of the Indian and the Pacific Ocean as the Seychelles, the Cook Islands, the Midway Islands, St. Helena, Mauritius, Réunion, New Caledonia and Hawaii were introduced.

Way of life

The jewel wasp makes use of the American cockroach ( Periplaneta americana), the Australian cockroach ( Periplaneta australasiae ) or Harlekinschabe ( Neostylopyga rhombifolia ) as a host. After the front legs paralyzing sting in the thorax the wasp is a second specific spot in a specific area of the ganglion and thus paralyzes the flight reaction of the cockroach. Then leads the wasp, as it is too small to carry the cockroach, the thus prepared insect at one of its sensors to a cave, where she deposits an egg in the body of the cockroach and includes the animal in the cavity. The cockroach is making because of the manipulation of their nervous system does not attempt to free himself.

Once hatched parasitoid larva consumes the jewel wasp their host in the course of a week gradually until the cockroach finally died. The larva pupates then in the shell of the cockroach. It forms a brown cocoon from which they hatch after about four weeks.

Jewel wasp and human

Attempts to use the breeding behavior of the jewel wasp as a means of biological control (1941 in Hawaii), failed due to the territorial habits of wasps and to the relatively small number of required breeding cockroaches that are not able to decimate the cockroach population.

Because of their Iridescent colors the jewel wasp is often kept in terrariums.