Emerald cockroach wasp
The emerald cockroach wasp is a small wasp that shines metallic blue-green like a jewel, with red legs. It is famous for a very strange trick: it can lead a big cockroach around by its feeler, like a dog on a leash. It does this to feed its babies.
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Fun facts
The wasp is too small to carry the cockroach, so it pulls it along by one feeler.
It lays its egg on the cockroach inside the burrow and then closes the door with bits of stuff.
People brought it to Hawaii in 1941 to fight cockroaches, but it did not help much.
One mating is enough for a female to look after babies on several dozen cockroaches.
Most asked questions about Emerald cockroach wasp
?Why is it called a jewel wasp?
Because its body shines metallic blue-green like a jewel.
?How big is the emerald cockroach wasp?
The female is about 2.2 centimetres long. The male is smaller.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ampulex compressa
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Ampulicidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Ampulicidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, South America
- Also known as
- Jewel wasp
Where the facts come from
- Emerald cockroach wasp (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Sharadpunita. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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