This week's image is of a parasitic wasp in the genus Piestopleura. As a member of the subfamily Platygastrinae, it parasitizes the eggs or larvae of small flies (Cecidomyiidae) that form galls in plant tissue. The wasp egg does not hatch until the fly larvae is full grown, at which point it develops rapidly and consumes its host. In cases where the host is much larger than the wasp, the egg will divide many times resulting in identical clones that allow many wasps to form from a single egg. This is known as polyembryony.
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