Like a scene from the movie Alien, insect parasitoids inject their eggs into unsuspecting hosts, their offspring grow and eat from within, eventually bursting out leaving dead, empty host vessels. These tiny predators, many of them wasps, can have major ecological and economic impacts. For example, wasps in the genus Melittobia attack pollinating bumblebees. Parasitoid wasp larvae feed on the pupae of nesting bees, and their fast reproduction can destroy entire colonies with barely a trace of the preceding carnage.
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