[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by IrishLake

lol, last summer, my daughter and I watched a parasitic wasp lay her eggs in a caterpillar. I felt bad for it at first, but it was fascinating!

Yep. There are some species that prey on tarantulas, too. They sting the spider to paralyze it, then she lays an egg onto its abdomen or (opisthosoma) where it can be dislodged. I mean, she/he will recover, and continue on like nothing just happened, lol but eventually she/he will be in big trouble, because when the egg hatches, the wasp larva clings onto the spider and eats it alive. Social parasites essentially do what any conventional parasite does. They just find the weaknesses in their hosts defenses and turn them into their own advantage. There are even vertebrates that do the same thing. The cuckoo bird is notorious for this. It's hilarious, especially watching the mother of another species feed a baby bird that's over twice as big as she is. I shouldn't have laughed, but it was hilarious watching him push the eggs out of the nest so the mother won't notice the difference in her own young and him. I always call parasites puppet masters, because most internal parasites have evolved to alter the cells that surround it inside its host, so it makes it easier to outsmart its host defenses. I know of one species that has the ability to control its host brain. It's like the host is the puppet and the parasite is the hand inside, lol. They are so amazing. Annoying, but very amazing.