Sci-Fi Worthy Parasite: Cotesia glomerata

Posted by Queuebot in Animal on May 10, 2009 at 1:50 am

Every week, Christie Lynn of Observation of a Nerd blog features a post about a hair raising parasite worthy of a science fiction (or perhaps better yet, horror) movie.

This particular one is about a caterpillar being eaten from inside after being infected with a parasitic wasp; make sure to see all of the other entries. And a little warning: it’s not for the faint of heart.

Cotesia glomerata, like many other parasitic wasps, targets caterpillars to host its hungry little wasps-to-be. When it finds a suitable host, it injects its eggs directly into the body cavity of the unfortunate butterfly larvae by stabbing its egg-laying, needle-like appendage called an “ovipositor” directly through the catterpillar’s skin. Inside the host, the eggs hatch and begin feeding on the inner organs to become fully grown.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Christophe.

 
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A Sexually Deceptive Orchid...

Posted by Queuebot in Animal, Science & Tech on January 28, 2009 at 4:16 pm

"...so convincing that male wasps will mate with it to the point of ejaculation."

After reading that in Harper's Magazine ("Findings" section, Sept '08), I Googled the relevant terms and found that this has been known for a century, and there's an abundance of such reports, most of them originating from Australia.

Some orchids can imitate the olfactory cues used by males to locate females, including producing pollinator-specific sex pheromones. As the pollinator approaches the orchid, he is again deceived by the coloration or shape of the blossom.

The original research was performed on Australian tongue orchids (Cryptostylis species). Curious to know what they looked like, I searched Google images and found the embedded photo above at the link below.

Remember, to a male wasp, these orchids look and smell like female wasps. What they look like to you is not relevant here.







Link - via harpers

From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by Minnesotastan.

 
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