Natures wonders: wasps and zombie spiders (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, August 08, 2015, 08:47 (3393 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by dhw, Saturday, August 08, 2015, 08:54

DAVID: Put your larvae on a spider, have him weave a cocoon for you and be the food source. The perfect total protection plan:-http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/08/06/these-parasitic-wasps-turn-spiders-into-web-building-zombies/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
 
"The zombie enslavement begins when a wasp lays eggs on the back of a spider. The resulting larva feeds off of the living spider's body fluid. About 10 days after hatching, the larva essentially turns the spider into a zombie that constructs a tough cocoon web to protect the baby wasp as it matures.
 
"These cocoon webs were found to be similar to the resting webs but stronger; the periphery of the cocoon web is three times stronger and the center is 30 times stronger. They also had decorative elements that reflect light, presumably to deter flying creatures from getting caught up in the web."
 
Comment: How to explain this arrangement in Darwin terms? I can't.-How to explain this arrangement in Turellian terms? God, whose purpose in designing the universe was to produce human beings, preprogrammed the first living cells so that their descendants would produce wasps and spiders a few billion years later, and one particular type of wasp would lay its eggs on the back of a spider etc.
Alternatively, God saw a wasp and a spider, and dabbled with the wasp to make it lay its eggs on the back of the spider etc.-How to explain this arrangement in dhw terms? A particularly intelligent and observant wasp worked out an ingenious way to provide its larvae with food and protection. It laid its eggs on the back of a spider etc. The method worked, and so it was passed on to subsequent generations.