Common Hoverfly Parasitoid Wasps! Today we're looking at a wasp I found in my backyard. This little insect lays its eggs inside of other hosts (hoverflys), which consumes the hoverfly larva from the inside out before bursting forth. Like a real life Alien!

The anatomy and morphology is absolutely fascinating under the SEM, especially compared to the fruit fly we saw in a prior episode.

(This was previously on my second channel, Micrographia, but will now live here)

Sources
• http://www.waspweb.org/Ichneumonoidea...
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichneum...
• Fitton, M.G. & Rotheray, G.E. (1982) A key to the European genera of diplazontine ichneumonflies, with notes on the British fauna. Systematic Entomology, 7: 311320.
• https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resou...
• Schmidt, Hayden R., and Richard Benton. "Molecular mechanisms of olfactory detection in insects: beyond receptors." Open biology 10.10 (2020): 200252.

Instruments
• Amscope 40X800X Trinocular Dualillumination Metallurgical Microscope with Polarization
• Thermo Phenom XL G2 (BSD, SED and EDS)

Music
• Odd Numbers by Curtis Cole
• Synthetic Network by C.K. Martin