What is interesting about the wasp rider and why did it get its name?

One of the representatives of the diverse world of insects is the horseman. This parasite, the larvae of which feed on the tissues of small creatures, sometimes attacks people. The largest population of riders lives in rainforests, but many species feel great in the climate of the middle zone, looking for a prey in the warm summer to continue their kind.

Insect description

Riders are an infraorder of insects related to hymenoptera. In total, it includes 100 thousand species, whose representatives, from the point of view of the theory of evolution, have a common ancestor. All riders are insects of small sizes: the body length of adult individuals usually ranges from 3 mm to 3 cm. The largest of them live in hot countries. Riders are known primarily as parasites, and prefer other arthropods as a victim organism. A bite of a hornet wasp threatens a person if he is a danger to her.

The color and size of the varieties are different. Most of them have an elongated abdomen, relatively thin; as well as narrow transparent wings resembling externally dragonfly wings in miniature. But in females of some species they are absent, which makes them look like an ant.
Riders and wasps familiar to all have an important difference: the former have no sting. Instead, the insect uses the ovipositor, the reproductive organ. With its help, females introduce victims (usually small insects - butterfly caterpillars, spiders) into the body, their eggs or larvae. But, like ordinary wasps, riders have glands that secrete toxic poison. In foreign literature, these insects are called "parasitic wasps" (Parasitic Wasp), which emphasizes the similarity.

The name of the infra-detachment "Riders" he received for the peculiarity of the process of laying off the larvae: its representatives sit on top of the victim, like a rider on a horse.

Riding wasps by parasitic method are divided into 3 large groups:

• ectoparasites, fixing their eggs on the surface of the body of other insects, actively using paralyzing poison;
• endoparasites, who prefer to put masonry inside the victim’s body, after which larvae appear that feed on its internal tissues;
• superparasites - "parasite parasites", infect insects with a similar lifestyle.

Species of hornet wasps often have significant differences from each other.

Common varieties

As already mentioned, there are many varieties of wasp riders. In temperate climates, the most common superfamilies are:

1. Mimarommatids, capable of living even in subantarctic zones and parasitizing on insect eggs.
2. Nutcrackers, which are both parasites and phytophages (feed on plant foods).
3. Proctotrupoid riders with microscopic dimensions (body length up to 5 mm). They are used as a biological agent in pest control.
4. Chalcides, of which there are 200 species in Europe. Useful insects that destroy other harmful arthropods; and some of their species are involved in pollination of plants.
5. Evanoidoid riders, the abdomen of which is diagonally raised relative to the chest. Their victims are wasps, cockroaches, sawflies.

The life of a wasp rider

Species of horsemans are settled on both hemispheres of the globe, with the exception of regions with extreme weather conditions. Most insects can be found near water bodies, because they prefer high humidity. There they hide in the thickets of flowering plants.

Adults are especially active at night, when they begin to seek out future carriers for their eggs or larvae. Riders are distinguished by an excellent instinct: even flying past a tree, under the bark of which there are larvae of beetles, they feel a victim.

Food

If the larvae of the wasp-rider actively absorb the tissues of the host organism, then adult individuals are not always predators. Some species in this phase of development do not need food at all. Others, such as Megarhyssa perlata, consume flower nectar. And the representatives of the Braconid family, although they prefer butterflies and firepieces, harm human property: grain, apiaries, and sweet food.

Breeding

The best time for breeding wasp riders is a rainy and warm summer. In this weather, the population increases several times.

After mating, the female lays eggs in the body of arthropods, most often small insects. The size and size of the masonry are individual for each species. Typically, about 20 larvae hatching from eggs parasitize in the body of one victim. They feed on tissues, which gradually leads to the death of the carrier at the time of pupation. Larvae spend “reserves” very sparingly: the victim never dies prematurely, because future riders will die with it.

Danger

Riding wasps are dangerous primarily for other arthropods, because parasitization leads to their death. This is the benefit of insects: often other pests become a victim, causing damage to human stocks, livestock, agricultural land. Riders, often “superparasites,” inhibit their population growth.

But is a wasp rider dangerous for humans? Fear of these insects is not unfounded. Their body, like that of wasps, produces poison, so bites do not pass without a trace. But riders do not attack people just do not make a laying under the skin of a person: they attack exclusively for the purpose of self-defense.

Poison is especially dangerous for those who have individual intolerance to the substances that make up its composition. In this case, the bite can provoke a dangerous condition - anaphylactic shock. Even in the absence of hypersensitivity to the riders' venom, soreness and swelling appear on the skin, which lasts for an average of three days.

Prevention from attack by wasp riders - cautious behavior. If an insect is seen nearby, you do not need to try to get to know it better or, on the contrary, actively drive it away with your hands. When visiting forests and meadows near ponds, it is better to wear tight-fitting clothing that covers the entire body.

What to do if a rider wasp has bitten? The action plan is universal for attacks of any insects:

• wipe the microscopic wound with an antiseptic;
• if necessary, use local anti-inflammatory, analgesic and anti-allergic drugs;
• if the reaction is severe, then antihistamines should be taken orally.

But usually a meeting with a wasp rider takes place without unpleasant consequences.

Riders are insect-loving in relation to humans, never choosing people as an object for parasitism. Their benefit is to reduce the number of other pests. The only danger is their poisonous bite, which causes unpleasant sensations.