I observed what I thought was some odd behavior by an (unidentified) wasp yesterday. I am currently in a battle with the lubber grasshoppers. I'm sure I've crushed 5,000 of them without exaggerating and they just keep coming.
I happened to see a wasp that was investigating one of the fresh killed lubbers yesterday. The wasp acted as if it was trying to eat the lubber, at times tugging hard enough on the carcass to cause it to move (no easy feat considering the small size of the wasp and the huge size -- about 3 inches -- of the lubber). The wasp finally settled on the rear end of the lubber. It then appeared to be eating the secretions from the squashed lubber. It must have enjoyed it because it stayed there long enough for me to go inside, get my camera ready, and return to take a few photos. Sorry, my old Polaroid digital is not really equipped for closeups, but you can see the vertical black "V" of the wasp wings at the back of the lubber.
I'm surprised by this behavior because there are very few creatures that will eat a lubber due to the toxic chemicals in the lubbers. I've read that shrikes will eat them, but the reports say the shrikes will stab the lubber to kill it, then wait a few days to eat it so that the toxins have degraded enough to be safe to eat. Lubbers will kill many birds, reptiles, and other animals, or make them sick enough that they will never want to eat another lubber. I've recently seen reports of the "bug chef" making shish-kabobs with grilled lubbers, so humans might be the only animal that will consume the bugs. I've even noticed that ants will approach the dead lubbers, sniff around, and then leave seeming perplexed. Normally, for any dead insect in my climate, there would be a solid mass of ants tearing it apart. Lubbers are reported to be cannibalistic, eating their own dead kin.
So, I'm just wondering what you might know or think about the behavior of the wasp I observed. It would seem that even as closely related as the wasp is to ants, the wasp might be able to digest the lubber toxins without harm (or maybe the wasp died later and I didn't see it).
Jeremy
