A terrifying new species of parasitic wasp that transforms its victims into suicidal zombies has been found in the Amazon.
The nightmare bug turns spiders into helpless drones who abandon their own colonies to do the wasp’s bidding — before its larvae eats them alive.
The gruesome discovery — made in Ecuador — was uncovered by scientists from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
They say the wasp’s behavior is a particularly “hardcore” form of hijacking, which is when one animal manipulates another.
After leaving their homes, the spiders are made to spin a special cocoon for the wasp larvae which will then hatch and eat the spider. The findings were published in Ecological Entomology.
“Wasps manipulating the behavior of spiders has been observed before, but not at a level as complex as this,” said Philippe Fernandez-Fournier of the UBC’s department of zoology.
“Not only is this wasp targeting a social species of spider but it’s making it leave its colony, which it rarely does.”
The parasitic wasp targets a spider called anelosimus eximius known for living in large colonies and cooperating with others to capture prey and raise their young.
Researchers noticed some of the spiders were infected with a parasitic larva and were seen wandering away from their colonies to spin enclosed webs.
“It was very odd because they don’t normally do that, so I started taking notes,” said Fernandez-Fournier.
It was then the stunned scientists noticed the larvae belonged to an unknown species of Zatypota wasp.
“These wasps are very elegant looking and graceful,” said Samantha Straus, co-author of the study and a PhD student in OBC’s department of zoology.
“But then they do the most brutal thing.”
A female wasp first lays an egg on a spider’s abdomen which then hatches and starts feeding off the spider’s blood-like hemolymph while getting bigger and slowly taking over its host’s body.
Then the spider deserts its colony to create a cocoon for the larva — before waiting to be fully devoured by the wasp’s young that then enters the protective cocoon and emerges fully grown 10 days later.
“This behavior modification is so hardcore,” Straus said.
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