Parasites that control the behaviour of their hosts for their own benefit are a well-documented natural phenomenon, but the discovery of a previously unknown relationship between a parasitic wasp and a social spider is particularly upsetting.
Video: Geoffrey Whitman/YouTube Filmmaker and photographer Geoffrey Whitman was sitting on his back porch yesterday when he noticed a group of wasps picking away at a dead dragonfly. Smartly, he pulled out his camera to document this rarely seen insectoid feast in all its gruesome glory.
Scientists have discovered a parasitic insect with a reproductive strategy straight out of an Alien movie. Dubbed the “crypt-keeper wasp,” it infects a rival species with its young, which, after hatching, proceed to chew their way out through the victim’s head.