You can listen to it over there
And find the other episodes on there, or on any podcast app:
This episodes uses the "European spring forest" soundscape, which I made from INaturalist recordings. You can find the details credits on the dedicated page.
Picture yourself somewhere in Europe.
[European forest summer]
A nice summer day is about to begin, but your little maggot body will not see the sun of it, as you are a fly larva living inside a wasp nest. You are *Volucella zonaria*, a guest along wasps.
[busy wasp nest sound fade in]
Hi and welcome to the Insect Insights, chill insect stories to relax and wonder, available wherever podcasts are. If you like this podcast, you can subscribe, leave a review and even an insect question, on spotify or on the website. I am Max, your host, and I hope you are ready to dive into insect knowledge for another insight!
Busy busy wasps, all around you. And busy busy you as well! Just because you aren’t a wasp doesn’t mean you have it easy. Surely the wasps clean up their nest a bit as, but you do as well. They are lucky to have you, or at least they are tolerating you for the service you provide.
You crawl around the nest, slowly wiggling your flat brown body across the papier-maché combs made by your Hymenopteran hosts. There’s a lot to eat just lying around, pieces of insects, faeces…
In the combs all around you rest plump wasp larvae. Big white blobs. Quite defenseless… Yes, sure, you could make a meal out of them. Just this once, and ust a small one.
You crawl in the comb, and start eating the larva. Deliciously fresh. Still live. This is quite a change when compared to your main diet of detritus.
But it won’t become a habit, just a cheat-meal. You are, mostly, a cleaner and a nice guest, and it should stay like this overall… You are not Volucella inanis, you parasitic cousin. This one, with its specialized mouth pieces, can only feed on wasp larvae, as an ectoparasite, staying in the comb and eating them slowly.
What an impolite way to jettison the gift of wasp hospitality!
But, enough dwelling on your bad guest of a cousin. You’ve had enough food now, to prepare for your metamorphosis. It is time to pupate.
As you moult, your old skin will harden and give you a protective enclosure to complete your development. A safe space, your puparium. In this minuscule chitinous sarcophagus, you will turn into your final and definitive self, the imago. A nice fly, with the colours of a wasp or hornet, to fit better among your guests… And scare off the predators.
Stratford, J. E.; Stratford, F. M. W.; Brown, R. L.; Oi, C. A. Nest Visitors of Vespula Wasps and Their Potential Use for Biological Control in an Invaded Range. J Pest Sci 2024, 97 (1), 445–453. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-023-01643-3.
Parmentier, T. Guests of Social Insects. In Encyclopedia of Social Insects; Starr, C., Ed.; Springer International Publishing: Cham, 2020; pp 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_164-1.