Emerald cockroach wasp

The wasp stings a cockroach twice, aiming for specific nerve clusters in its body and head, rather than just injecting venom at random.1

After stinging, the wasp leads the cockroach to its burrow by pulling on one of its antennae, like a leash, even though the wasp is too small to carry it.1

The stung cockroach can still walk, swim and flip over, but it loses its normal urge to escape.1

The larva eats the cockroach's internal organs over about 8 days, and the adult wasp later emerges from the dead cockroach's body.1

A single mating is enough for a female to parasitise several dozen cockroaches.1

The wasp was brought to Hawaii in 1941 as a biological control, but this did not work well because of the wasp's territorial behaviour and the small scale on which it hunts.1