The emerald jewel wasp also has a long, probing organ with a touch-sensitive tip, but its goals and methods are far grislier than a red knot’s. The wasp—a beautiful inch-long creature with a metallic green body and orange thighs—is a parasite that raises its young on cockroaches. When a female finds a roach, she stings it twice—once in its midsection to temporarily paralyze its legs, and a second time in its brain. The second
