Apraxis Wasp

Official artwork

## Reference

**Apraxis Wasps** are a telepathic swarming cryptid that terrify everyone who has ever encountered them. They have appeared in several InCryptid short stories including And Sweep Up The Wood.

## About

Apraxis wasps reproduce by implanting eggs into a sapient host. When the host is living, the egg sac paralyzes the host into a comatose state and then hatches within a week, killing the host in the process. This process takes longer on a dead host, which increases the difficulty of exterminating infestations following a swarm attack.

They prefer to lay eggs in sapient hosts because, when the nymphs hatch and emerge, they will retain the memories of their host.

Apraxis hives are comprised of anywhere from one to over one hundred members. When they become that populous, they split into smaller groups. They have a communal government rather than queens, and they always put the survival of the hive above the survival of the individual. Adult Apraxis will often sacrifice their own lives to implant their eggs in a host viewed as "useful."

They are known to have overrun several dimensions possibly related to the migratory patterns of the Jhorlac exiles known as cuckoos.

### Appearance

Their red, black, and yellow coloration most closely resemble the Japanese giant hornet. Their body construction is more similar to a paper wasp or common yellow jacket.

### Abilities

Apraxis wasps possess near-human intelligence, the ability to mimic human speech, and the ability to psychically absorb the memories and knowledge of their victims. Unlike talking birds like parrots or songbirds, their mimicry perfectly recreates the voice of their victims.

## In the Series

### Stingers and Strangers

Jonathan and Frances travel to Boggsville, Colorado to investigate irregular migration patterns of the Apraxis wasps that reside there. They find the wasp nest at the train station. It appears multiple hives have taken refuge together, a strange occurrence. The wasps attack, and they run. The wasps refuse to follow beyond the station. They find Heloise Tapper, the cuckoo who is freaking out the wasps. When Heloise is injured in a shootout, the wasp swarm comes for them. Jonathan and Fran create a fire barrier and escape.

### And Sweep Up The Wood

Jonathan is killed by a swarm when he and Alice investigate a suspected Apraxis nest in Buckley. Alice extracts several parasitic larvae from her own body, but realizes that she will have to face a swarm of hundreds in a few weeks when they emerge from Jonathan's corpse. She sets her affairs in order, and visits Thomas one last time before going to her death. At the graveyard, she shoots the wasps as they emerge, but is overwhelmed until a group of Aeslin Mice sacrifice themselves as a distraction, allowing Alice to destroy the wasps with a grenade. Stung many times, she makes her way back to Thomas's place and asks him to remove the eggs before passing out.

## Trivia

* Samples of preserved Apraxis nymphs can be viewed in the Portland collection. These nymphs were extracted from the body of Alice Price-Healy, following the death of her father, Jonathan Healy.
* It was theorized by Miguel De Luca (Covenant, mid-1500s) that the Apraxis originated "not in this world, but in the deepest pits of hell."
* The only known predator of Apraxis wasps is Cuckoo, which suggests they both originate from Johrlar.
* Contraception charms also work well at expelling parasites like Apraxis wasp larvae.

## In Popular Culture

Parasitoid wasps actually exist in nature, and there are a variety of species that fall under the scientific family. They lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causing the death of these hosts. They mainly follow one of two major strategies within parasitism: either they develop inside the host and allow it to continue to feed and develop, or they develop outside the host and paralyze it immediately.

## References

1. ↑ Dictionary.com - praxis; wasp
2. ↑ Magic for Nothing audiobook
3. ↑ Vesania medical definition
4. ↑ https://worldofdictionary.com/dict/latin-english/meaning/effervo
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Spelunking Through Hell Ch. 12
6. ↑ And Sweep Up The Wood, Sect. 10
7. ↑ Stingers and Strangers