The larva then finds a place to bury itself and enters its cocoon stage. After 23 more days, the fully grown wasp emerges.

Science writer Mindy Weisberger speaks to Live Science about the parasites that turn their hosts — whether ant, beetle or ...

Braconid larvae fed on the insides of this hornworm ... Have you ever seen a big green hornworm chewing on tomato plants with white cocoons on its back? That hornworm has been attacked by a parasitic ...

The wasp seals the still-living cockroach inside the nest until the larvae hatch ... the wasp will create a cocoon and transition into its adult form, and the cycle will begin again, the study ...

Erythrina gall wasps are yellow 6- to 8-millimeter-long invasive pests. They create galls — swollen, tumor-like growths — in erythrina tree tissue that serve as cocoons for their larvae to mature.