I was going about life one day, visiting my step-daughter the entomologist who showed me, in a microscope, a pale green little aphid which was eating a leaf. Inside the aphid was a tiny parasitic wasp which was eating the aphid. Through the aphid’s transparent body, I could see the wasp’s buggy little eyes. I jumped away from the microscope and said, “Ick, ick, ick.” My step-daughter just shrugged: “The aphids just go right on eating. They’re awfully dumb.”
The picture here kindly shows us the process — go ahead, click & blow it up — only not with aphids but with some hapless thing under the tree bark: #1, the parasitic wasp taps her antennae on the bark and listens for echos of something underneath; #2, the parasitic wasp drills through the bark; #3, the parasitic wasp drills into the something underneath; #4, the parasitic wasp corrects for the optimal position; #5, she lays her eggs; #6, she continues laying eggs. Eventually the eggs hatch and the wasp larvae will eat the hapless thing from the inside out.
And here’s the worst part: Heather and Josie, my co-bloggers who are good and generous people, who dislike violent movies, who think of themselves as kind-hearted, “find parasites of all forms really fascinating,” says Heather. Josie says she thinks of “parasites as part of the great web of life.” To them I declare, parasites are not part of any great web of life that I feel I’m part of. Continue reading
