What do cuckoo wasps eat

Cuckoo wasps are found worldwide except, understandably, in Antarctica. There are about species north of the Rio Grande, and California is especially cuckoo-wasp-rich settle down, the BugLady is just talking about Insects, here. There she lays her eggs. The larvae of some species of cuckoo wasps feed on the larvae of the nest-builder, usually another wasp, a bee, a silk moth or a walking stick. Species that operate this way are called parasitoid like the tachinid flies of previous BOTW fame ; they eat their hosts from the outside and then pupate outside their host.

Other kinds of cuckoo wasp larvae are cleptoparasites really! While these wasps may be easily seen and brilliantly recognized in the daylight, they are rather inconspicuous to their insect host. While the cuckoo wasp is a master of disguise around other insects, they are likely to catch your eye on a sunny summer day.

Residential Pest Control. Commercial Pest Control. You Don't Have to live with Pests. Get a Quote. Despite their caution, cuckoo wasps are frequently caught in the act of sneaking in, but their oddly pitted exoskeletons protect them from the stings and bites of their hosts.

Host bees or wasps then have no other option but to grab the balled-up cuckoo wasp in their jaws and carry it outside the burrow to evict it. The unharmed cuckoo wasp simply turns around and tries to get into the burrow again. Once the female cuckoo wasp succeeds in leaving its eggs in a burrow, the larvae have two survival strategies.

The first option requires the cuckoo wasp to eat several different kinds of food before it can pupate, while the second strategy lets the host larva do all the work, converting food stores into one juicy meal. It may have no function at all. The scientists who reported on the source of the color speculate that the spacing between exoskeleton layers appears to protect the wasp from bites and stings or serve as a thermal buffer from the heat of the ground.

And the resulting color may be just an incidental tip-off that a tiny bit of insect intrigue is buzzing by us on the trail. Every story from Bay Nature magazine is the product of a team of people dedicated to connecting our readers to the world around them and increasing environmental literacy. Close Search.