That is, until a PhD student in Mississippi started looking at the bugs in his backyard.
Parasitic wasps lay their eggs in or on a live host, where they gestate until they hatch.
Around 1% of the male flies they caught were infected.
My, they grow up so fast.© Matthew Ballinger, Logan Moore, Nature
Only one of 477 female fruit flies, however, had a baby wasp inside of her.
Moore and Ballinger concluded that the wasps laying the eggs belonged to a previously undiscovered species.
The actual process by which a new wasp forms in the flies is straight up Lynchian.
There is currently no evidence that S. perlmanilives anywhere outside the U.S. One possibility is that adults are way more mobile than the young versions.
Another is the thicker exoskeleton a wasp would have to break through to lay their eggs.
Adults are also more likely to be able to defend themselves.
Other species have beenfound infecting butterflies, and some even go afterrival types of parasitic wasps.
Its good to know that when it comes to sheer, visceral, horror, wasps are so inclusive.
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