A small black platygastrid wasp, around 1.5 mm long, with an elongate metasoma, veinless wings, and a small spine on the mesoscutellum. Lateral view.

Just published! A new discovery in biological pest control: Synopeas ruficoxum, a natural enemy of the soybean gall midge in North America. 🧪🧵 doi.org/10.3897/jhr....

Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs Dinidorid stinkbugs were reported to possess a conspicuous tympanal organ on female hindlegs. In this study, we show that this organ is specialized to retain microbial symbionts rather than to perceiv...

Wow, nature is too cool! Structures on stinkbug hind legs that used to be interpreted as ears are actually chambers with fungi. The bugs coat their eggs in those fungi to protect them against parasitoid wasps. 🧪

Defensive fungal symbiosis on insect hindlegs | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

How is this possible?

This ant can lay eggs of two different species, birthed by the same mother

Het zijn piepkleine boomwants (Pentatomidae) nymfjes

Agroecology: It’s about time for oviposition-induced cue use Combining chemical analysis of herbivore oviposition-induced plant volatiles with preference-performance assays reveals that parasitoid wasps effectively use these compounds in long-distance host loca...

Excited to share our Dispatch discussing how Trichogramma egg parasitoid wasps effectively use oviposition-induced plant volatiles in long-distance host location and quality assessment Agroecology: It’s about time for oviposition-induced cue use: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

A nice collection of papers on herbivore detection in plants including our paper on the evolution of butterfly egg-killing in this virtual issue! @lottecaarls.bsky.social

A word to the wise: we have only 27 slots left out of 200 in this GRC and Jan. 19 is the deadline to register. If you want to go, apply now and then you can register. Many steps. Despite the terrible fires in LA (my heart goes out to all of you in LA), we expect the conference to be held as planned.

Photo of some yellow butterfly eggs of the Large White, Pieris brassicae, with a tiny Trichogramma parasitoid sitting on the side. Photo by Nina Fatouros.

Photo of a tiny Trichogramma parasitoid hitching a lift on the head of a Large White butterfly female, Pieris brassicae. Photo: Nina Fatouros

Butterfly fact 6. Eggs, larvae and pupae are eaten by a host of predators. But their biggest killers are parasitoids that can kill 90%+. This astonishing photo by @trichogramma74.bsky.social shows a Trichogramma on Large White eggs. It hitches a lift on ♀♀. Details in Butterflies from Bloomsbury.

Today's Ritsema Bos Lecture by Anna Rosling at Wageningen University #fungi #ritzemabos #wurplant #plantscience

Good news! Our study by Bassetti et al. on R-genes involved in butterfly egg-killing cell death in Brassica has received over 1,000 views since publication! Read it here onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pc… #ViewsMilestone

Thanks to my students during the first-years Fauna course I could witness this giant #ichneumonid wasp Megarhyssa rixator in action, parasitizing the larva of a giant woodwasp inside the wood with her mega long and flexible ovipositor. #biodiversity of NL @w-u-r.bsky.social