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Despite there being way more insects than any animal on the planet, most of them aren’t a reason to stay awake at night. That’s because, when it comes to the order of things, bugs are pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole. However, many species seem to be playing by the maxim that when your predators include everyone else on the planet, you need to get busy pulling together an elaborate defense or get busy dying. Or, bar having some awesome defense mechanism, just be scary as balls.
Voodoo is religion commonly confused for a form of black magic practiced by fat girls the world over. Wasps are a violent species of insects commonly confused with a questionable rock band. When the two collide like a horrible train wreck, the results are as magical as they are deeply disturbing.
Voodoo wasps are called such because of their ability to turn caterpillars into what amounts to a zombie. This charming process begins when the wasp lays its eggs inside of the caterpillar, around eighty at a time. The caterpillar is perfectly fine until the eggs hatch into larvae stage, during which they feed off the caterpillar’s bodily fluids. Once fully grown they eat their way out of the caterpillar and spin cocoons nearby. And so goes the circle of life. Sunrise, sunset.
Army Ants
Much like the previous entries, army ants live up to their name. With colonies reaching well over one-million members, a single group of army ants are rivaled only by the KISS Army, and even then the odds are still in their favor. Their massive jaws are extremely painful, leaving two puncture wounds not unlike a vampire.Army ants also happen to be blind which, following the Daredevil theory of disabilities, serves only to make them more powerful and a huge box office drag. It may also explain their thorough dependency on teamwork. Their raids consist of columns made up of millions of ants, all of whom pick a single direction and walk until they find something. Then they proceed to tear that something apart because that’s just how they roll.
Assassin Bugs
Despite their name, assassin bugs aren’t notable for their ability to kill (though many of them will lay down the law should the need arise) but rather how they use the dead. Much like Ed Gein, assassin bugs make as much use of corpses as they can. Unlike Ed Gein, assassin bugs aren’t sexual deviants with murderous and cross-dressing tendencies.Some assassin bugs will cover themselves in the bodies of the dead and dying in an attempt to camouflage themselves from larger predators like spiders. By acting as a pile of dead and debris an assassin bug is able to avoid detection by bugs that rely on vision.
Tree Ant
If army ants can be considered the Rambos of the ant universe, then tree ants are the Predators. Their horrifying claim to fame is their ability to construct elaborate traps to ambush potential prey, such as locusts or Jesse “The Body” Ventura.After finding a host plant, the tree ants begin building foxholes out of its hair and then intentionally grow fungus to hold it together. Once complete, they wait for something to have the misfortune of stumbling into their parlor. And their dedication to the craft is admirable; they’ll wait for days if they have to. But it’s not about the hunt; it’s about loving what you do.
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Posted in: Weird And Strange
