A new species of wasp has been discovered that lays its eggs inside adult fruit flies. The wasp larva grows inside the fly and then rips the fly open when it emerges, a recent study described.
Known as Syntretus perlmani the adult wasp lives throughout the eastern U.S. , with the ones analyzed in the study collected from Mississippi , Alabama and North Carolina .
An adult female wasp, which is smaller than the lead tip of a pencil, infects a larger adult fruit fly by stabbing it in the abdomen with an organ that she then uses to inject an egg into the insect…