Metoecus paradoxus is a beetle that parasitizes wasp nests. In autumn the female lays her eggs in rotting wood. When an egg hatches, the larva — a hook-legged form called a triungulin — grabs onto a passing common wasp and rides it back to the nest, because it cannot reach a nest on its own.
Inside the nest, the larva waits for a wasp grub to seal itself into its cell, then "consumes the host and pupates in its place." To avoid detection, it shares about 91% of its cuticular hydrocarbons with the wasps, so it smells like one. The adults live only 6 to 12 days and "probably do not feed" before the cycle starts again.
The beetle's feathery antennae give it a second common name, the "eyelash bug." In 2020 Megan Thee Stallion posted a viral video of one on a wall, calling its antennae "on fleek" and saying it "just got [its] eyelashes done at the club." When a friend identified the insect as Metoecus paradoxus, she said, "Bitch, that is her. Look at them damn lashes! That is crazy." However, the bug in the video appears to be a male Pterotus obscuripennis, a firefly — not this beetle.
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