Little Australian Wasp Hunts Venomous Redback Spiders
Posted on September 11, 2012
University of Adelaide researchers have announced that a small wasp is being dubbed the redback spider-hunting wasp. A family in Beaconsfield, Western Australia, discovered one of the wasps with a paralyzed redback spider in their backyard. The venomous redback spider is a native of the black widow spider, found in North America.
The little redback spider hunting wasp (Agenioideus nigricornis) was forgotten for nearly 200 years after first being discovered in 1775 by Danish entomologist Johan Christian Fabricius through samples collected during Captain Cook's first voyage. The wasp stings and paralyzes a redback spider and drags it back to its nest as seen in the photograph below. The wasp then lays an egg on the spider. The larval wasp feeds on the spider when it hatches.
Professor Andy Austin from the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology & Biodiversity, said in the announcement, "We're very excited by this discovery, which has prompted us to study this species of wasp more closely. It's the first record of a wasp preying on redback spiders and it contributes greatly to our understanding of how these wasps behave in Australia."