Killers, Poisoners and Other Predators
For some species of true bugs, wasps, beetles and ants, it is not nectar and pollen that are on the menu, but other insects. The members of this predatory gang use different methods: they kill and eat their prey themselves, or they paralyse it and store it in brood chambers as food for their offspring.
Provisioner: European Beewolf
The European beewolf (Philanthus triangulum) specialises in honey bees. This digger wasp paralyses its victim with a sting to the thorax, squeezes the nectar out of the prey and licks it up. Its saliva keeps the still-living bees preserved for up to two weeks. The female places six bees in each brood cell together with one egg and protects the whole chamber from fungi and bacteria with a glandular secretion.
Impaler: Red Assassin Bug
The red assassin bug (Rhynocoris iracundus) skewers its prey with its piercing rostrum. It then injects a paralysing venom and sucks the victim dry. All that remains is the insect’s outer shell, its chitinous exoskeleton.
Predator: Hairy Rove Beetle
The hairy rove beetle (Emus hirtus) hunts flies and their larvae in dung. Its water-repellent hair covering prevents its legs and sensory organs from becoming clogged by fresh dung.
Strangler: Myrmoxenus stumperi
Ants of the species Myrmoxenus stumperi carry out slave raids when founding new colonies. The fertilised queen enters a чуж nest by stealth: she hides, plays dead, or “drums” on the host ants with her antennae. Then she kills the resident queens by throwing them onto their backs like a wrestler and strangling them over several days. In the end, she has her own brood reared by the host ants.