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Volume 633 Issue 8031, 26 September 2024

Hostile takeover

The fruit fly Drosophila is a research staple — a model organism so widely studied, it would be easy to assume that its lifecycle offered few surprises. But in this week’s issue, Logan Moore and colleagues report an unexpected twist: a parasitic wasp that targets various species of adult fruit fly. Some 200 species of parasitic wasp lay their eggs in vulnerable stages of the fruit fly’s life, attacking larvae or pupae, but until now none had been identified that opted for adult flies as their host. The researchers came across the newly described species of wasp, named Syntretus perlmani, by chance, while screening wild fruit flies for nematode infections in Mississippi. The team determined that the wasp is a member of subfamily Euphorinae, species of which are known to target other adult insects, including beetles, ants and grasshoppers, but this is the first species found to target adult flies. The cover shows the wasp (right) and its host, in this case Drosophila affinis.

Cover image: Matt Ballinger, Mississippi State University

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