Parasitism Fascination: A Parasitic Wasp, Dinocampus coccinellae

The video I shared last week about Parasitism and Parasites Mind-controlling abilities, is one of my favorite videos of all time. And after seeing it first a long time ago and watching it the 4th time today, it still fascinates me. One of my favorite part of the video is the discovery of species which are unknown to me. Though a lot of species were mentioned, the video showed basic but not thorough information.

I decided to learn more about the species mentioned on the video, which I really enjoyed. I'll share them to you which i will split them with a post representing a certain species. And I'll start with the first species that was mentioned on the video, the Dinocampus coccinellae.

Dinocampus coccinellae
Is a tiny parthenogenetic & parasitic wasp from the family Branconida, which is family of parasitic wasps.

They are extremely tiny, an adult wasp's body length is only 4mm long.

The most interesting thing about the D. coccinellae is their life cycle. And let's be honest, all parasites have interesting life cycle.

The D. coccinellae will track a host, a coccinellid bettle, which are famously known as Ladybug beetles.

After tracking the beetle, the female D. coccinellae will inject an egg into the body of the beetle.

After hatching from the egg, the wasp larvae will feed on the insides of the beetle, avoiding vital orgasm and keeping the beetle alive. Because if the beetle dies, the larvae will die as well.

Upon days of feeding and growing, the larvae will chew a hole and emerge through the beetle and will spin a cocoon under the beetle.

Then the larvae will manipulate the behavior of the beetle. During the cocoon stage of the wasp, the beetle will stand by and will shield the cocoon against predators, making the beetle their personal bodyguard.

After 7 days the wasp will emerge, and if the beetle survives it will have an actual chance to recover from this and can continue a normal life.

I do not own the images used on this post, credits goes to the original owners.