Spider Parasite
Okay, so the other day I found this cool spider on my clothes. It looked like it had a worm (a bit like a maggot) growing out of it's back! The worm/maggot looked like it was attached at the spot between the head and the bum part of the spider. So I put it in a jar (yes I am that kind of cruel person, I've never grown out of it) and the worm/maggot killed the spider. It is now an empty shell, the worm/maggot is huge and hanging in a web. Curiosity (or perhaps it was the fact that I was supposed to be studying) got the better of me and I did a quick look on the web.
It was wasp larva. But it gets cooler. It's a "manipulative wasp". It flies in and stings the spider which is then paralysed. It then lays it's eggs, the spider comes all back alive again goes about it's normal web building activities while the larva drinks it's blood. Then the night before the larva kills the spider it gets it to build a "web of death". It is a completely different web to the one the spider normally makes but it is ideal for the larva to hang it's cacoon from. When it senses the spider has built the web, it kills and eats the spider. Then makes a cacoon. Right down the bottom of this page there is a picture of what the spider I caught looked like with it's "worm" living off it. It also has a link telling you more about the manipulative wasp. It's so cool.
It was wasp larva. But it gets cooler. It's a "manipulative wasp". It flies in and stings the spider which is then paralysed. It then lays it's eggs, the spider comes all back alive again goes about it's normal web building activities while the larva drinks it's blood. Then the night before the larva kills the spider it gets it to build a "web of death". It is a completely different web to the one the spider normally makes but it is ideal for the larva to hang it's cacoon from. When it senses the spider has built the web, it kills and eats the spider. Then makes a cacoon. Right down the bottom of this page there is a picture of what the spider I caught looked like with it's "worm" living off it. It also has a link telling you more about the manipulative wasp. It's so cool.
posted by earthkissed | 2:43 pm
4 Comments:
That is cool. I saw that on a David Attenborough documentary once, but I didn't know that wasp existed in Australia!
Hey, your story sounds exactly like mine. I have quite a few spiders that I keep track of at my house. One of my buddies had a weird larval stage insect on his ass. I took them and froze them to death. However, the spider, before I killed him, was building his own cocoon of death.
If you'd kept it you could have seen the wasp hatch out - I did, it was awesome.
These Manipulative Parasitic Wasps that feed on spiders can actually be found at North Ryde RSL believe it or not.
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