The most amazing about this is that, so far, its adaptations to aquatic life are almost entirely behavioral. It hasn't developed paddle-like legs, or a more streamlined body shape; just an ingenious use of silk and some air bubbles.
Enter the most diversified and shrewd parasite there is; mankind. We call it animal husbandry. They work for us, they watch, search and hunt for us. They comfort us and they feed us, and our own species is indeed not exempt. 70% of these larvae are enslaved by these wasps, but the percentage of enslaved (domesticated) horses, just to mention one species, is probably well over 99.99%. Those that cannot serve us, especially those that compete with us or complicate our industries in the slightest, we tend to exterminate. Directly or indirectly. And before you think this is a morality comment, think again. Nature doesn't care and we're no exception. We're just so lost in our addled ego's we think we're separate from it. And just like any species that becomes too numerous, we too will undermine our own existence in time.
i was surprised to find out this isn't from a documentary or major programming outlet! the camerawork and footage captured is stunning, the musical composition is beautiful and the commentary is very clean and informative. really excellent work here!! 🪲 ❤️
Show this to those people who talk about how “peaceful” and “beautiful” nature is without humans. Stupid people who know nothing of real nature apart from their little garden they keep in their back yard in the suburbs.
Nature is indifferent to morality. People have a hard time accepting that suffering is incidental, and that nature is not cruel or benevolent, but just a mechanical process. Pain, sadness, fear, these are just mechanisms which have evolved in nature because they maximized an organism's chances of survival. They're a way of contextualizing our environment, but have no intrinsic relationship with the fundamental forces of nature, especially not our ideas of morality.
Out of curiosity, do the make wasps wait for the female wasps to emerge so they can reproduce? If so, isn't that, well, genetically dangerous if done over a long period of time?
What if the larvae release some insane neurotoxin that while they are paralyzed they are in bliss and then guarding it is because it's an addict and associates the cacoons with its super crack
for the life of me i can't find the video about this wasp that's narrated by david attenborough, does anyone know what I'm talking about? I think it was either in Planet Earth or Life Story
Makes me think, whats in the chemical cocktail injected by the wasp that makes the caterpillar take care of the larvae, that eat it slowly, it's really scary
