GERMANY (CNN) – German scientists have documented more than 100 new species of wasps, including one named after a Harry Potter character. The wasp is named the Soul-Sucking Dementor wasp.
Scientists say it’s been living in obscurity in a jungle in Thailand until last year.
The wasp injects venom into a mass of neurons on the cockroach’s belly that turns the roach into a passive zombie. Cockroach wasp venom blocks receptors of the neurotransmitter octopamine, which is involved in the initiation of spontaneous movement. With this blocked, the cockroach is still capable of movement, but is unable to direct its own body.
It gets worse for the wasp’s unfortunate victim. Once the cockroach has lost control, the wasp drags its stupefied prey by the antennae to a safe shelter to devour it.
Visitors to the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin voted to name the wasp Ampulex Dementor in a poll, noting the insect’s similarity to the dementors that terrorize Harry Potter and his fellow wizards.
Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling retweeted its photo, and the buzz helped propel the insect with a creepy sting to worldwide fame. Possibly for eons before, it had lived in obscurity in an enormous Southeast Asian jungle, until it was discovered last year.
The wasp was named for the sooty, skeletal, flying “dementor” character that appears in Rowling’s novels and sucks the humanity out of its victims. One almost got Harry at Hogwarts once, but a schoolmate sprang to Potter’s aid.