New parasite wasp species discovered inside of adult fruit flies

Researchers at Mississippi State University have discovered a new species of parasitoid wasps, in case the world wasn't terrifying you enough right now. While parasitoid wasps have been previously known to hijack other animals in their larval stages—essentially laying their eggs inside of other eggs—this new species has been laying eggs inside of fully mature adult fruit flies while they're still alive.

Neat! Also horrifying.

From the abstract:

Despite a deep history of research attention and remarkable biodiversity, a wasp species that attacks and develops inside the adult stage of a fly host has not been described previously. Here we report the discovery of a wasp species that infects the adult stage of fruit flies in the genus Drosophila, including one of the most deeply studied model organisms in biology, Drosophila melanogaster. Notably, this wasp can be easily collected from backyard fly baits and has a broad geographic distribution throughout the eastern USA. 

As the researchers point out in the paper, it's also much easier to capture and study wasp-infected eggs than to capture living fruit flies with wasp eggs waiting to burst out from inside of them like a fucking xenomorph. As if the rise in mosquito-borne illnesses wasn't bad enough.

Drosophila are hosts to the first described parasitoid wasp of adult flies [Logan D. Moore, Toluwanimi Chris Amuwa, Scott Richard Shaw & Matthew J. Ballinger / Nature]