This species is labelled, by the zoology department of the world famous Bardic College Campus in Greynor, as an "entomophagus parasitoid". It is known for its solitary nature, its brilliant green carapace, and its oddly specific reproductive habits. The thighs of its third and fourth pair of legs are bright red.
Mostly found in the tropical regions of the world, such as the archipelagos of the ancient Tolmec Empire, this arthropod of the insect class has such a unique, and frankly allegorical, reproductive process that several freshmen classes have been subjected to its study quite thoroughly. "Horrifyingly thoroughly," as put by one of the students; a junior who finally worked up the nerve to speak on the affair.
What they found was that the female of the species would prepare a burrow in loose sand, covered with loose debris, before stalking her prey. In this case, a roach.
The much smaller wasp would first inject the roach's thorax at aprecise angle and depth, injecting a weak paralytic poison that temporarily disables the roach's front legs. This enables the wasp to make the next sting, into a ganglia located in the roach's head, unopposed. After all, the roach is degrees of magnitude larger than the tiny Emerald Wasp.
The second sting disables the roach's "fight or flight" reflex, entirely, making it entirely passive. What happens next is unsightly, but the little wasp will then eat half of its victims antennae, feeding on the hemolymph therein. Eventually, the wasp grasps one of the raoch's antenna, and leads it to the prepared burrow, where the roach will just sit calmly, sometimes grooming itself. It never thinks to leave.
The emerald wasp female will lay two larvae between the front legs of the roach, which is by now too weak to leave, even if it was capable of wanting to. The fertilized larvae hatch, and begin by eating the roaches front legs, with their rich supply of hemolymph. They then burrow into the captiv roach's abdomen, consuming it from the inside, and finally killing the hapless host. The larvae then form chrysalises within the roach, eventually emerging fully grown to begin their adult lives.
Created by Terrapin Lexiconia
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