I’m not exactly sure what’s going on in this photo, but I bet it is interesting. The scene is an apple of sodom seed pod (apple of sodom is basically a big milkweed plant). It’s covered in oleander aphids, but there are also two wasps. On St. Martin, there is a different wasp that parasitizes oleander aphids, laying an egg in an aphid so the wasp larva can eat the aphid from inside. Perhaps these wasps are another species that does the same thing.
However, the yellow aphids are the healthy ones, and the darker-colored ones have probably already been parasitized, and these wasps were only on the darker ones. This leaves a second possibility: these wasps are parasites of the wasps that parasitize aphids. Wasps that are parasites of other parasitic wasp larvae do exist. Parasites within parasites. We live in a crazy and wonderful world.
A big thank you to our new supporters: Laurel Kalish and Simon Budinot, Chris Nagano, Olivia Roudon and Stephen Winkel and Anette Hermann! If you are unfamiliar with our projects to print the new 2nd edition of the book and get copies to schools, libraries and other important places, check out the info on this page to learn more and participate.
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