I heard Nora, my granddaughter, excitedly call, “Pawpaw! Come! Gug!” I immediately knew she wanted to capture and examine a bug so I hurriedly came to her aid. The bug she found was not just any bug though. While it is a fairly widespread insect in the U.S. it isn't all that common to find one, especially for a 2 1/2 year old. I retrieved my handy-dandy bug catcher and we captured the little critter. The more common name is Ensign Wasp. Don't worry they don't sting humans.
What is amazing about this little roach killer is not her looks, even though as wasps go her species has some very unique characteristics, but where she lays her eggs. She lays one egg in every common American roach egg case she can find. Since one case contains 16 roach eggs, just one wasp egg per case kills 16 roaches. This is a good creature to have around on the Texas gulf coast.
When the wasp finds an egg case she will examine it intensely for a few minutes, lay on her side with her legs firmly holding the case, then with a special boring apparatus she will spend up to half an hour boring through the hardened shell. When the hole is complete she deposits one egg in the case which will hatch and live in the shell for over 100 days while feasting on the eggs. It will molt 5 times in the egg, each time with a different set of jaws and teeth designed for specific tasks.
The complexity of this creature is simply outstanding. How does she know there is sustenance for her young inside the hardened roach case? Why does she have a specially designed body to bore into the egg case? And how does she know to use it to do the job? When it comes to the systems of creation the how and whys always point to a designer. And He is amazing!
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