Insect turns arachnid into a zombie, forces it to build its most protective web The spiders build delicate round webs to catch prey. But that changes after an adult R. nielseni wasp stings a spider, ...

There’s nothing subtle about the way in which the Reclinervellus nielseni wasp larva takes control of the Cyclosa argenteoalba spider’s nervous system. First, an adult female wasp must attack a spider ...

Wasps are notorious for devouring other creatures from the inside out. Now scientists have learned that after they’ve killed something, they wrap themselves up in its cocoon for good measure and ...

A new species of parasitoid wasp that constructs remarkable star-shaped cocoon masses is reported from the biodiversity hot spot Ryukyu Islands. Researchers observed how the wasps construct 'stars' ...

Many insects make cocoons when they are young to protect themselves from the big, bad world, full of predators (and cable news channels). Ichneumon wasps have a found a way to make this process easier ...

Like a mindless zombie controlled by a menacing overlord, the spider scampers back and forth, reinforcing its silky web. Not long from now, the subservient arachnid will be dead, its web transformed ...

If a ladybug's life were a horror film, this is how it would start: Scary string music. A close-up of the green-eyed face of a wasp. The sudden pierce of a stinger. The screen goes dark. Next, an ...

A terrifying new species of parasitic wasp that transforms its victims into suicidal zombies has been found in the Amazon. The nightmare bug turns spiders into helpless drones who abandon their own ...

What goes on in a cocoon as a caterpillar changes into a butterfly remains one of nature's best kept secrets. But a new study reveals one part of the process: The insects burn a tremendous amount of ...

A unique "star" was discovered from the Ryukyu Islands, a biodiversity hot spot in subtropical Japan: a star-shaped structure that turned out to be the cocoon mass of a new species of parasitoid wasp.