Die Wespe, die sich Raupen als Sklaven hielt: Die verrücktesten Überlebensstrategien der Tierwelt

by Matt Simon, Leena Flegler (Translator)

Der gnadenlose Überlebenskampf der freien Wildbahn stellte schon so manche Spezies vor verzwickte Probleme. Doch die Evolution kennt immer eine Lösung, und sei sie auch noch so verrückt. So werden Ameisen zu Zombies, Beutelmäuse zu Testosteronmonstern und Wespen zu Sklavenhaltern. Mit bissigem Humor stellt Matt Simon die skurrilsten Überlebensstrategien des Tierreichs vor. Und unweigerlich fragt man sich: Liebe Evolution, was hast du dir da nur gedacht?

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Animals, Biology, Evolution, Natural History

385 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 25, 2016

About the author

Matt Simon is a journalist who writes Wired Science's 'Absurd Creature of the Week' column. He has also edited Wired's 'This Day in Tech blog', which was compiled into the book Mad Science, and writes a second column called 'Fantastically Wrong' that explores the strangest mistakes in folklore and science. He lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.



The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar reads like an evening spent with an eccentric friend who, with an irresistible dose of humor, imparts his knowledge of the most bizarre yet fascinating evolutionary adaptations.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put off reading this since I thought it would be too similar to his book Plight of the Living Dead: What Real-Life Zombies Reveal about Our World--And Ourselves which I read not too long ago. It was in the beginning, but then turned out to be a pretty good basic text on evolution with quite a bit of humor. Let's face it, if we didn't laugh about some of the strange ways organisms have evolved to survive long enough to pass along their genes, we'd have to cry in horror & disgust.

The multitude of survival strategies are impressive & often confounding at first. More than once scientists have been baffled by only finding females of a species to find out that the males have evolved into nothing more than parasitic sacks of sperm. Other times sexuality is fluid as with flat worms where the loser of a lancing contest gets to bear the eggs, although some snails just impregnate each other if they can. If not, they go it alone & impregnate themselves. In the meantime, they're battling the elements, trying not to become dinner for their predators, & find enough nourishment for themselves. It's a tough world out there.

Simon does a great job of describing the environmental niches these animals populate & even gets into island environments & how they can radically alter the ecosystem without bogging down into a lot of science-speak. True, he doesn't delve too deeply into anything, but this is a great overview of some of the oddities sharing the globe with us. My audio edition was very well narrated by a SAG actor, so it was a lot of fun. Highly recommended for teens & up. I think it would be a great introduction into evolution for teens.

Update Simon mentions that millipedes don't have 1000 legs, but at most 750. A Smithsonian Magazine article I read today describes a new find with with over 1000, though.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...

Table of Contents
Introduction
CHAPTER 1:
You Absolutely Must Get Laid
Antechinus
Anglerfish
Flatworm
Mustache Toad
Toadfish
CHAPTER 2:
You Can’t Find a Babysitter
Ant-Decapitating Fly
Glyptapanteles Wasp
Asp Caterpillar
Ocean Sunfish
Lowland Streaked Tenrec
Surinam Toad
CHAPTER 3:
You Need a Place to Crash
Pearlfish
Tongue-Eating Isopod
Pistol Shrimp
Sociable Weaver
Hero Ant
CHAPTER 4:
You Live in a Crummy Neighborhood
Water Bear
Diving Bell Spider
Zombie Ant
Pink Fairy Armadillo
Naked Mole Rat
CHAPTER 5:
Turns Out Getting Eaten Is Bad for Survival
Hagfish
Axolotl
Cuttlefish
Satanic Leaf-Tailed Gecko
Pangolin
Crested Rat
CHAPTER 6:
It Turns Out Not Eating Is Also Bad for Survival
Giant African Land Snail
Aye-Aye
Mantis Shrimp
Bone-Eating Worm
Tiger Beetle
CHAPTER 7:
You Can’t Let Them Get Away That Easily, Can You?
Bolas Spider
Velvet Worm
Geography Cone Snail
Lamprey
Assassin Bug
A Few Parting Words

[Lubinka Dimitrova · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightfully silly bag of useless (at least for me), but interesting facts, presented with such humour that this turned out to be one of the books I mostly enjoyed this year. Despite all the gross details about the habits of those animals (literally), it was impossible not to enjoy the flair with which many of the discussed species were named. Highly recommended for a quick, fun reading.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The female wasp begins by seeking out a caterpillar. And like the ant-decapitating fly, she drills into her victim. Unlike the fly, though, the wasp deposits as man as eighty eggs into the poor critter. These will hatch into larvae and feed on bodily juices...all the while the caterpillar goes about its life, meandering around and eating....so the larvae release chemicals to paralyse their host and erupt in masse from its body...but this isn't the end...as they squirm out, the larvae shed their exoskeletons, which plug up the wounds they leave behind, and it's in their best interest to keep their host alive, at least for the time being. One or two will stay behind, and these stragglers seem to be responsible for what happens next. By remaining in the caterpillar, those larvae may release chemicals that mess with their host's brain, transforming the caterpillar into an ultraviolent goon that protects the rest of the brood."

The above excerpt is one of the many informational treasures in The Wasp that Brainwashed the Caterpillar by Matt Simon. Not only is it informative, it's wildly witty, laugh out loud funny, creepy, cringeworthy, and will leave the reader with a greater sense of understanding of Darwinian biology. One minute you're grossed out and cringing at what you just read, the next you're dropping the book and wildly laughing nearly breaking your own glasses. Simon briefly covers so many animals from the cuttlefish to zombie ants to pink fairy armadillos and their ingenious ways of finding a mate, food, and survival from predators and their own harsh environments. This is a book that should be in high schools, as young adults may come away with a greater understanding and respect of our world having copies of this in each biology class.

[Sonja Arlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 ½ fun stars

I love watching QI (thanks YouTube) and regularly listen to a podcast called “Tell Me Something I don’t Know” so it’s obvious that I am a bit of a trivia junkie.

This book is filled with animals doing evil, weird, and necessary things to one another, all in the name of procreation and survival.

There are too many wonderous creatures to mention but there are 2 that stand out.

The Hag Fish that basically choke predators by enveloping them with snot

The indestructible Water Bear that can withstand decades without water, outer space, extreme heat/cold or radiation and STILL thrive. We can thank our lucky stars spiders are not as resilient.

The only reason why I am not giving this a full 4 stars is because about 1/3 of the content I already knew compliments of Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation And QI.

The humour was at times a little juvenile for my taste, but I think it makes the science feel a lot more accessible to people who would normally shy away from this type of book.

This is a great book to dip in and out of at random and would make the perfect gift for a know-it-all.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science at its most accessible, "The Wasp that Brainwashed the Caterpillar" is written in a voice that's a crazy amalgamation of Jacques Cousteau, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and a 10-year-old boy.

This is a gleeful look at some of the most fascinating and appalling behaviors in the animal kingdom, and how these behaviors came about over time, in order to solve the most basic problems of survival and reproduction. I couldn't help but Google the animals in each chapter, to get a visual glimpse behind the tale. (There are illustrations, but not full color photos.)

I'd recommend to any adult or teen who loves science and is not put off by straight talk, snark, and colorful language. I'd let my middle grade daughter read it as well, but that would be an individual parenting choice.

I had many laugh out loud moments, several gasps, and some disbelieving and disgusted shakes of my head while I was reading. I was captivated the whole time.
An anecdotal book, it's one you could pick up and read piecemeal, sit down and devour, or read aloud with a friend as suggested by my Goodreads friend Rana who gave me the idea to read it. I highlighted this book more than I've highlighted any other Kindle book.

Using the cool Kindle iPhone app search feature, I found 11 references to "anus", 11 to "snot", 24 to "penis", 14 to "butt", 29 to "death". Only five to "vagina". Also 31 for "sperm" and 61 to "egg". No reason for this notation, I just had fun doing it.

It's also a little bit of a love letter to Darwin and the other groundbreaking scientists who have studied these animals.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like "Monsters Inside Me" on the Animal Planet TV channel, you'll love this one.

If you like ridicule, snark, wordplay like puns and satire related hyphenated adjective named critters, you will love it. It's good, although all those aspects of the writing style all together got a tad "too too" for me at points. You can't believe some of these lifestyle patterns could get more gross in practices as the book goes on, but they do. And most of them are perfect fodder for his humor.

If you have belief in nature being balanced in roles and fairness, pastoral at core, this book will rock your boat. More than a bit. All things alive compete fiercely in order to stay that way. Not only to remain alive for the moment but to reproduce their own kind. Who can in turn reproduce more of their own kind over "place" and time. The sea itself, sea floor, caves, puddles, leaf cover all kinds of places are intense and never stopping/ending open mouths.

This happened to be the third non-fiction book in this particular animal biology category in general that I have read this month. And ALL of them have defined "species" differently. Matt Simon addressed that and calls it the "species problem". And he defines it as any two individuals that can procreate in combined gametes. That's very different than others. Most define "species" now as two individual are "same species" if they can procreate individuals which are fertile and that also produce fertile third generation individuals.

There is quite a difference in base terms in this field. I like that he admits that his species definition results in animals and insects etc. that are not allowed to be named on his word processor because they are auto corrected. "Ligers" and such.

Evolution to the degree that so many of these species have conformed (and always adapting the conforming) to use other species as prime to their purposes! It's interesting in the supreme. Hearing about Wallace was 5 star. Also I am so glad I read about the asp caterpillar. I'm around fishing places, fishermen's equipment etc. quite often.

I knew it was far from unusual (to use other species and all elements of the surroundings) but I didn't fully realize the vast number who eat their finds alive from the inside out. Or worse. And frequently without killing them outright for the majority of the host's longevity.

It's format is very easy read. This is the only book I've read in this specific genre that puts the information into a form that is close to perfect for light interest readers, as well as those who are more studied already in the field. Short divisions of exact category, varying print, excellent graphics of every sort! Fully 4.5 star.

[Konner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible and weird. I love science but I haven't studied biology or zoology in depth, so I was happy to discover that this book is informative but not overly dense. It's the perfect kind of book to read furtively on a plane, hoping that the person next to you won't glance over and see the words, "ADVENTURES IN HAVING A SIX INCH LONG CLITORIS" emblazoned across the page. After reading you'll have a newfound respect for this bizarre world we live in and all the strange inhabitants we share it with.

Overall, The Wasp that Brainwashed the Caterpillar is very entertaining, easy to devour in a few sittings, and great as a gift to all kinds of people in your life. Highly recommended for fans of Mary Roach, Bill Bryson, Joan Roughgarden's "Evolutions Rainbow," Oliver Sacks, Wired magazine, The Magic Schoolbus, Douglas Adams, Bill Nye, Planet Earth, marijuana, etc.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who have wondered, "Oh My Gawd! What is that thing?" or "How can one survive in these tough climates?" comes a collection of stories about the strange animals we share this planet with.

From the brainwashing wasp to the fungus-controlled ant, Matt Simon tells story after story about the amazing things animals can do to survive and how they evolved into it. Each story is more fascinating than the next with chapters broken up by themes. Simon is irreverant, but hilarious as he breaks up the disgusting descriptions with deprecating humor. His stories are all fascinating though and you'll walk away with some really cool fun facts to share.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in quirky science. Any fan of fun non-fiction will enjoy this book too. This is definitely for fans of Ripley's Believe it or Not. This isn't for the lighthearted though. Some descriptions are gross and intense. However, it's all to move the story along in a quick and efficient manner.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A popular science book with a bit of an emphasis on the “popular”. Not that there’s anything wrong with making science accessible to laymen such as myself, and if you are thinking of reading this book, prepare to have your mind comprehensively boggled!

Darwin famously cited the behaviour of the Ichneumonid wasps as one of the things that persuaded him about natural selection. These wasps lay their eggs inside the living bodies of caterpillars, and when the eggs hatch the larvae eat the caterpillar from the inside. In a letter to a friend, Darwin commented that “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent & omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.” However, after reading Matt Simon’s book I was left considering the Ichneumonidae as having a fairly ordinary sort of evolutionary adaptation. The book consists of a series of short descriptions of various species of animal, all of which have extraordinary features or modes of behaviour. I had heard of some of these species before, and I had actually seen the Zombie Ant featured on one of David Attenborough’s series for the BBC, but this book introduced me to (amongst others), the Ant-Decapitating Fly; the Penis-Face Fish, and the Tongue-Eating Isopod. The last of these, in particular, is like something dreamt up by a horror movie scriptwriter who has just had a bad acid trip.

In fairness, the book is not all about nature red in tooth and claw. Species like the Weaver Bird, the Axolotl, and the Pink Fairy Armadillo score low on the revoltingness scale but still have very unusual adaptations, and the author keeps a humorous tone throughout. I liked it a lot. It’s entertaining, you will gain some knowledge of the natural world, and by the end you will be absolutely amazed at what evolution can produce!

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Besides the subject of the book's title, meet the tongue-eating isopod, a sex-changing crustacean that swims into a fish's mouth, eats its tongue, then becomes the fish's replacement tongue until it lets go, leaving the poor fish unable to feed and starving to death. Or how about the pistol shrimp, which shoots out cavitation bubbles producing temperatures of 8000 degrees Fahrenheit and noise levels of 210 decibels. Then there's the hagfish, a bottom feeder that can produce so much slime in self defense that it can suffocate an attacking shark. The ant-decapitating fly, whose maggot feeds on the ant's innards but preserves the brain until it can release a mind-controlling chemical to guide the body to a suitable place, then releases another chemical that disembodies the head, eats its brain and then uses the skull as its pupa. These are the stuff of nightmares that fill up this easy-to-read, engaging book about rarely mentioned creatures with unique niches in the food chain. Each chapter reads in under 5 minutes so you can load up on materials to feed your dreams before you go to bed, or whenever you need to be reminded that your life is not so bad after all.

[Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, the title alone is great, come on. And I'm a big biology/zoology buff so this was a great book for me.

If you're someone who is interested in the many creatures that live in the world around you but you fall asleep when things get to technical and "scienc-y" this is the book for you! Matt Simon writes in a very accessible voice the is peppered with sarcastic jokes (and some bad jokes) and has the undercurrent of a smartass telling you something you don't know (but not in an annoying way, at least to me).

The book is broken into sections and within those sections are short chapters on each different animal. This made it easy to pick up, read for a bit, and then go off to do something else. It was a very amusing and informative read that I would recommend to any animal/nature/science lover in your life.

~Renee

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I really REALLY liked this book. It's easily portable, the sections for each critter are short enough to read in quick snatches, and it is FUNNY. Matt Simon has quite the sense of humor when it comes to the most insane bits of life around us. And yes - there is a lot of talk about butts. Because...animals are weird. The night I took this home, intending to read it, I spent half the night laughing and reading bits out loud to my husband - so...it's also quite good for that.

If you know someone who is at all interested in crazy animal facts, presented with a sense of humor that does not overshadow the information - this would be excellent.

[Bon Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly incredible book about brutalities of biosphere and evolution. Surpassed all my expectations. It's written with such passion you can feel the authors gusto and zest when it comes to revealing the bloodshed and incredible biological adaptations hidden to the eye, that's happening all around us, all the time. This extends to choosing the absolute funniest terms and phrases to described these shenaningans, happening without any conscious intent other than to simply survive. The whole work is little paradoxical, somewhat strange, but also some of the best fun I've had in reading this year. Amazing work.

[Sherrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

***I wont this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***

FIVE STARS! This book is hilarious and informative and I'm so full of random knowledge about animals that I'm going to burst. The Pink Fairy Armadillo is my new favorite thing. It's back looks like a shell, but it's actually a radiator that uses blood! That's too cool for school. Anyway, this book is nerdy and fun and I highly recommend it to pretty much everyone.

[MKF · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all have the someone who without warning says something to us that's personal that makes us very uncomfortable. We get that shocked look and tell them that was just way to much information. This book is that someone and within a few pages you are not just uncomfortable but disturbed yet oddly cannot stop reading. I think I learned more about a side of the animal kingdom then I ever wanted to know but at least I now have some new facts for the next dinner party.

[Melissa Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book. I was constantly telling anyone who would listen all the interesting facts I learned. It was totally amazing to see how these creatures have learned to survive. Each section on each creature starts out with a beautiful pencil drawing of them then goes on with around 4-5 pages of their amazing world in which they live. In those pages are blocks with offshoots of other interesting facts.
I took a star off for a few small combination of things. One was that you could tell the author liked Darwin. So much so that he is constantly brought up. I understand that with the title of the book that he might come up but it was a bit much. In the chapter of the Aye-Aye, it is hardly at all about the animal. It was more about Darwin, Owen and Huxley. Also, while the drawings were beautiful, I did have to constantly put down the book to look on the internet to see what the creatures really look like in color. When he described the brilliant colors of the Lowland Streaked Tenrec, the drawing does not show that. Or even how truly adorable the Mexican Mole Lizard is. I did regret looking up Surinam Toad after it had given birth... yuck! I even had to watch videos to see how some of these amazing feats were done.
It is very informative book and highly recommended.

[Kelly]

If you love the bizarre adaptations of nature, then this is the book for you. I happen to be someone who digs these weird facts and stories, and this book was a DELIGHT to listen to. At times on audio, the jokes didn't seem to deliver as well as they would in print, but in addition to being really interesting, this has a lot of humor packed in what can sometimes be downright horrifying for humans to think about.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel so blessed to have won a finished copy of this book in a goodreads giveway. The hardback edition I received is so beautiful, with a stunning cover and plenty of illustrations at the beginning and scattered throughout each chapter. I graduated from college with a degree in Zoology, so while many of the lifestyles of the creatures mentioned in this book weren't new to me, I couldn't help grinning at the easy way Simon writes about them. I still learned new things and had fun reading, but the nerd in me wanted more in-depth science and biology. Simon writes so that someone who isn't schooled in the sciences will be able to pick up a chapter and understand it, explaining things in easy terms and analogies. The chapters are very short and humorous, which makes me wish I had a coffee table so I could display this book on it in my living room and entice visitors to pick it up and skim through. Everything highlighted in this book is on the stranger spectrum of what nature has produced, so it might not be for the more squeamish of readers. I would definitely recommend it to people who like weird facts and nature. It's in all honesty a fun book, and if I had come across it randomly in a bookstore I know I would have been tempted to buy it. My rating is more like 4.5, and I'm conflicted on whether to rate up or down. I'm going with down for now, only because I really did want more technical science, but that'll probably change. Either way, know that I highly recommend this book. It's fun, is pretty to look at and you get to learn about the oddities of nature. What more could you want?

Many thanks to goodreads and the publisher for sending me a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read! Creepy, cringe-worthy, and full of crazy critters, bizarre situations, and soooo many WTF moments! My only complaint is that the author was very heavy-handed in his feelings on Evolution vs Creationism. I don't care if you prefer one over the other, but after a point, I felt a little bit annoyed by it. We get it. You believe in evolution. That's fine. But, stop batting the Creationists over the head with it.

[Julie Trapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very odd/weird creature facts book that makes you either say "WOW! That was fascinating!" or "Gross, that was creepy and disgusting!" Put me in the latter group. You do learn many odd (interesting, to some) eating, mating, sex, etc. habits of organisms. An ant-decapitating fly, a tongue eating isopod, a bone eating worm, and assassin bug - all there for your reading pleasure. ICK!!!

[Rebecca]

Short chapters, each devoted to a creepy and/or gross and/or cool fact about evolutionary adaptations of various species. You have the fungus that inspired The Last of Us, various wasps/creatures that inject other species with their eggs so that the poor victim becomes a living incubator, cool squids and fish... I wasn't very sure about this book at first, I thought the tone was too flippant, but the creepy/gross/cool facts won me over. A fast and entertaining read, and kind of made me realize all over again that Nature is both very cool and very scary.

[Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great review of gross and mind-blowing creatures, I'd highly recommend it for middle school science nerds. As a book for adults, it's a little bit lacking. Simon's tone is okay for a magazine article, but over the course of a book it has the same whiff as an SNL skit that runs too long. The subject matter is also a little shallow, I would have appreciated more detailed explanations of how these creatures strategies work, especially the brainwashing ones. The book is also a little threadbare without color illustrations or photographs.

[Tania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every single animal in this book >>>>>>>>>>> the entirety of the human race

Also, the more details I find out about Laika, the more I want to curl into a ball and cry. The saddest animal that ever lived.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fun and educational, and I loved Matt Simon's sarcastic writing style. It was a good balance of really interesting science delivered into bite-sized chapters, and the illustrations were fun too. Several times, I turned to google to learn more about some of these crazy creatures.

[Reinier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastisch, waanzinnig, bizar, ongelooflijk en grappig!

[Vallerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The illustrations were amazing. I highly suggest reading the hard copy, not the ebook. The hard copy was amazing in format, illustrations, and writing. It was a pretty quick read for me. Wonderful all around. The book had lots of small and lesser known animals in it and I appreciated that. I liked the little sections within each animal section where it talks about something related to the topic at hand or something similar. Lovely.

[Pete daPixie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The front cover looks like it could be a Roald Dahl children's book. In fact, come to think of it, 'The Wasp That Brainwashed the Caterpillar' is so packed with gore, guts and sex that the kids would love this book. I liked it for three stars, but added an extra star for Matt Simon's humour.
For those who look out into space for weird and frightening life forms, they need look no further than planet earth. For, as Mr Simon has catalogued, our rock is crammed full of life forms that are mean, nasty, ugly critters, lurking ready to kill using teeth, claw, poison, toxin or mind control for their next meal. If food is not the agenda then the impetus is likely to be getting laid.
'The ant-decapitating fly surgically inserts its kid into a living ant, where the maggot moves into the brain and mind-controls the host into the leaf litter, before releasing a chemical that pops the ants head off. Safely inside, the maggot develops like a babe in a crib.'
Other delights on God's grey earth include the penis-face fish of Vietnam or the Glyptapanteles Wasp, responsible for this book's title, and lots, lots more!

[Eisha · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars rounded up. Maybe because of the targeted audience, Matt Simon wrote like a cheeky 14 year old who just discovered what sex is. I just could not get behind this book. I did force myself to read all of it but the constant flurry of "whoopee whoopee" (sex) references and anus jokes just did not hit the mark. I do think this is a good book for those looking for a quick but thorough read on evolution and some catchy evolutionary tid-bits. I expected a little bit more, more detail, or newer stuff other than zombie ants, tongue eating isopods etc. It just was not it for me. Will definitely be giving this book away.

[Michelle Nicholson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who is interested in the ways evolution influences different species then this is a book for you. It's full of weird-ass creatures that you won't be able to get enough of.
The author keeps his descriptions and explanations simple enough, for those who don't completely understand biology, without actually dumbing it down to the point of Condescending Teacher. He keeps it funny too. Which is great because really, how can you keep a serious tone when discussing "penis fencing"?
I already knew about some of these creatures before reading this book, but there were still some things in here that I did not know. So, in my opinion, a book that taught me something new was definitely worth the time spent reading it.