--- title: Harry Potter Cockroach Wasp Insect Called Dementors description: Soul-sucking wasp gets a name from Harry Potter. canonical: https://time.com/91196/now-theres-an-insect-named-after-a-harry-potter-character/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-07T19:18:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:28.615Z og:title: Meet the Insect Named After a Harry Potter Character og:description: It's a newly discovered species from Thailand og:url: https://time.com/91196/now-theres-an-insect-named-after-a-harry-potter-character/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt632ff2275a947d79/69868e46e8524b0af7602c2b/wasp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1399 og:image:height: 787 og:image:alt: wasp og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Meet the Insect Named After a Harry Potter Character twitter:description: It's a newly discovered species from Thailand twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt632ff2275a947d79/69868e46e8524b0af7602c2b/wasp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Now There's an Insect Named After a Harry Potter Character  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 7, 2014 7:18 PM UTC  PLOS One  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 7, 2014 7:18 PM UTC The Natural History Museum in Berlin let the public vote on a name for a newly discovered species of wasp in Southeast Asia that eats cockroaches, and the name _Ampulex dementor_ was chosen. In the Harry Potter series, “dementors” are [prison guards](http://www.scholastic.com/browse/subarticle.jsp?id=4257) that can suck out a person’s soul with just a kiss, so naming the insect after those creatures is “an allusion to the wasps’ behavior to selectively paralyze its cockroach prey,” according to a report by the researchers published in [PLOS One](http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0095068) at the end of April. Known for moving in a “typical running and jumping behavior, the red-and-black wasp stings the cockroach in one of its “neural nodes” which allows it to drag “prey in running mode into its nest, just like a zombie,” the ballot given to museum visitors said. Sounds like a pest, alright. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/91196/now-theres-an-insect-named-after-a-harry-potter-character/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/91196/now-theres-an-insect-named-after-a-harry-potter-character/"},"headline":"Now There's an Insect Named After a Harry Potter Character","datePublished":"2014-05-07T19:18:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:28.615Z","description":"Hint: those scary soulless guys","url":"https://time.com/91196/now-theres-an-insect-named-after-a-harry-potter-character/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt632ff2275a947d79/69868e46e8524b0af7602c2b/wasp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt632ff2275a947d79/69868e46e8524b0af7602c2b/wasp.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"wasp","caption":"","creditText":"PLOS One","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/91196/now-theres-an-insect-named-after-a-harry-potter-character/","name":"Now There's an Insect Named After a Harry Potter Character"}}]}] ```