Dinocampus coccinellae, a wasp parasitoid targeting ladybirds

Female parasitoid wasps lay their eggs inside host species; developing larvae consequently consume the host from the inside. With this species, a koinobiont parasitoid, the ladybird host continues to survive during this process. It is trapped guarding the subsequent silk pupa (cocoon), paralysed. Some biochemical mechanisms for the parasitism are thought to be delegated to a virus transmitted by the wasp - perhaps the paralysis of the host included.

[Pictured here on a petri dish - having parasitised one of the subjects at Dr Tamsin Majerus' ladybird lab, University of Nottingham.]