905,337 @ 9:53 am Jan 26, 2017
Stephanie Eating Medford's Finances from the Inside Out
Medford is B. pallida, the host.
Darth Stephanie is the parasite inside the host, forcing it to suffer as she gorges on its resources.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/01/crypt-keeper-wasps-parasites-new-species/
Even Kelly Weinersmith, a parasitologist at Rice University and lead author of a new study on the crypt-keeper, says the behavior is creepy.
As a claustrophobe, she shudders at what B. pallida must endure—“being stuck inside of a tight tunnel with no room to move, all the while having your insides eaten out.” (Read about hundreds of new parasitic wasps species found in Costa Rica.)
“But it’s also awesome and amazing that a parasitoid has managed, through natural selection, to manipulate its host in this particularly cool way,” says Weinersmith, whose study was published recently inProceedings of the Royal Society B.
