#parasitism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #parasitism, aggregated by home.social.
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#Arachtober 14: A wasp's progress. Over a few weeks in July, I saw a cobweb spider on a fire hydrant parasitized by a wasp larva, then the wasp's pupal cocoon, then at last the empty cocoon.
Some parasitoid* wasps alter the spider's behaviour to make them spin a web more suited to sheltering the pupating larva; not sure if this was the case here.
There are also hyperparasitoids that target parasitoids, so for all I know the wasp itself may have been parasitized and a different species emerged!
#DailySpiderPic #spiders #wasps #parasitism #Araneae #Theridiidae #Hymenoptera
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* "Parasitoid" means a type of parasite that eventually kills its host rather than simply feeding on it. Your typical parasitoid is a solitary wasp that lays eggs on hosts which become larvae that devour the host, often from within. -
a story, taken over the span of a few weeks
#DailySpiderPic #spiders #insects #Araneae #Theridiidae #Hymenoptera #Braconidae? #parasitism #parasites