by Danny Klittich

Yesterday the Parrella Lab hosted an upper division parasitology laboratory class.  Danny Klittich taught the lab which focused on parasitoids used in biological control.  Part of the lab consisted of an aphid dissection looking for parasitism.  This photo was taken of one of the students dissection through the eye piece of the microscope.  It shows something really very remarkable to find in the field.  You can see the primary parasitoid pupae in a pinkish hue inside the exoskeleton of the aphid.  However if you look in the top left corner of the frame you can also see the egg of another parasitoid!     This was quite the find for this class!  The egg most likely belongs to a hyperparasitoid (ie. a parasitoid of the aphid parasitoid).  In addition there was a nematode crawling around on the parasitoid pupae that did not show up in the picture.

Check it out!