These Caterpillars Never Stood a Chance Against the Bodysnatcher Wasp | Trials Of Life | BBC Earth

A lot of work is invested in one of these holes and if one seems vacant another wasp will try to claim it. Once the burrow is finished the female performs an elaborate dance around it familiarising herself with its surroundings so that she knows exactly where it is. And then she conceals it so that none but she is likely to find it. Her nursery must now be provisioned and for that she needs fresh meat, a caterpillar. First she paralyzes it with her sting. Thanks to her dance she knows exactly where her hidden hole lies. Each burrow will have several caterpillars in it and each addition requires the same stopping and unstopping of the tunnel entrance. The urge to collect caterpillars is so strong that they'll pick them up wherever they find them. Watch this. She has already laid a long yellow egg on the first caterpillar. When the tunnel is full she seals it with special care. She uses a grain of gravel like a pneumatic ram vibrating it by buzzing her wing muscles, one of the few instances of an insect using a tool. In a few days time when the egg hatches the grub will find fresh meat awaiting it. These cabbage white caterpillars are also doomed. Another species of wasp injects them not with paralyzing poison but with eggs. Day after day the caterpillars grow and mature, apparently unaffected, but inside them the wasp eggs are developing. Having fed so richly on the entrails of their caterpillar host the wasp grubs are ready to pupate as soon as they emerge and they start straight away to spin their silken cocoons. Ten days later they have become adult wasps and are themselves starting to search for caterpillars.