Evil wasp of evildom

[Plane Sailing]

How do you like this puppy?

Short Sharp Science: Meet Indonesia's warrior wasp

 

[Jack7]

Me likey. I think it would make a great D&D/fantasy (or even sci-fi or pulp/horror) type monster. Lose the wings, make it basically man-sized, with six motile limbs and a pair of appendages that vibrated extremely rapidly, (too fast for normal observation) that could both whip and stun, it would spit a liquid very much like naphtha or the chemical fire of a bombardier beetle, they would travel in hives of up to six with overlapping sensory fields and so would be able to organize concerted attacks, be well armored (they would have chitin) but extremely fast, and you'd have a really dangerous monster. they would have the ability to detect vibrations, hear extremely well, sense body-heat, and perhaps see in spectrums that humans could not sense. The proboscis and the stylets could be weapons, and it might secrete a paralyzing substance when attacking with the mandibles or mouth. And of course it might have a retractable stinger with a sufficient toxin load to kill a single man, maybe even a horse.

Plus they might even be able to be controlled by another creature by hypersonic vibrations, or maybe even sub-sonic vibrations, or able to produce their own sonic weaponry which would be amplified in their hive hunting pack, and so they'd be even more dangerous. Heck, the appendages might produce a vibratory hypersonic frequency, and an organ in the thorax or abdomen might produce a sub-sonic attack.

All in all this could be turned into a formidable monster at the man-sized level.

 

[Mouseferatu]

How do you like this puppy?

Short Sharp Science: Meet Indonesia's warrior wasp

Thanks, man. I've been looking for an excuse to writhe in horror rather than ever sleeping again. This should do nicely.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Those ARE pretty nasty...but did you look at the Tarantula Hawks mentioned in the article? More than 2" long and with one of the most painful insect stings in the world.

And the Asian Giant Hornets are no slouches either. Note that their stings have chemicals that do 3 distinct tasks: 1) destroy tissue, 2) cause pain, and 3) attract othe Asian Giant Hornets.

Oh yeah, and since all of these creatures have barbless stInge and powerful mandibles, they can sting repeatedly AND bite you at the same time.

Mother Nature has an interesting personality, does she not?

 

[Gulla]

Mother Nature has an interesting personality, does she not?

I specially "enjoyed" this little factoid from the wikipedia article:

Each year in Japan, the human death toll caused by Asian giant hornet stings exceeds that of all other venomous and non-venomous wild animals combined, including wild bears and venomous snakes

This is one reason to love long, cold winters. I promise I won't complain about Norwegian weather for at least 24 hours

 

[frankthedm]

This article has a few more pictures.

UC Davis Department of Entomology - UC Davis Entomologist Discovers New Species of Wasp: Gigantic Wasp with Long, Powerful Jaws

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

They really DO look like a Giger or Brom creation, don't they? Or maybe something from the 4Ed guys, Prescott and Seamann.