Superparasites

August 31, 2018 5:53 PM

Parasitic Vines That Feed on Parasitic Wasps That Feed on Trees "Scientists studying wasps that target oak leaves found that a second parasite, a vine, can get its tendrils into the homes set up by the wasps, called galls, subverting their diversion of the host’s resources. After that, things don’t go so well for the wasp."
posted by dhruva (25 comments total)

Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
posted by TedW at 6:10 PM on August 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

A related aquatic thing with lobsters and whelks that MeFi's Own The Whelk and LobsterMitten should both be made aware of but I didn't dare make a separate post of for various reasons.
posted by oneswellfoop at 6:37 PM on August 31, 2018 [18 favorites]

Big trees have little bees upon their leaves to gall 'em,
And little bees have vines, you see, to permanently install 'em.
And the great trees, themselves, it seems, have nursery trees to feast on;
While these at least have shrooms and yeast and so can get their beast on.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:44 PM on August 31, 2018 [22 favorites]

When the researchers dissected 51 love-vine-infested galls from one wasp species, they found that 45 percent contained a mummified adult wasp, compared with only 2 percent of uninfested galls.

That suggests that the love vine interferes with the wasp’s nutrition such that it develops fully but is not able to leave.

I have no great love for wasps, but that is the stuff of nightmares.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:47 PM on August 31, 2018 [6 favorites]

Someone did post the lobster thing earlier today actually!
posted by Wretch729 at 7:09 PM on August 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

Is this Nature Is Horrifying Day or something?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 7:10 PM on August 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

Bout time the horrifying parasites got taken down by another horrifying parasite...

We're saved!!!?!!?!!
posted by Windopaene at 7:44 PM on August 31, 2018

The gall wasp is getting it from all sides. Well there's also the cryptkeeper wasp.

Egan, being a keen naturalist and an expert on gall wasps, snipped off some of the branches, took them back to his lab, and kept them in a container on his desk. After a couple of months, he noticed that a few orange insects had fallen to the bottom. Those were the gall wasps—an orange species called Basettia pallida, which had finally chewed their way out of their crypts. But not all of them made it. Egan noticed that some were stuck, their heads wedged in their own escape holes.

They cut open the branches and realized that every stuck wasp had a companion inside its crypt—a second wasp, half the size of the first, and iridescent blue. And in every case, the blue wasp was eating the orange one.

posted by Space Coyote at 7:58 PM on August 31, 2018 [11 favorites]

99% of wasp species are generally our friends and allies, from a species-ist perspective, as well as a holistic ecological view.

If you can imagine an agonistic relationship between two functional groups, it probably exists.

That said this is very cool news, thanks!
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:06 PM on August 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

"Wow, that's quite an act! What do you call it?"
"The Republican party."
posted by codacorolla at 8:06 PM on August 31, 2018 [17 favorites]

Invasion of the Waspy Snatchers
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 8:08 PM on August 31, 2018

Let's lean into horrifying nature eh: Giant shipworm, it lives inside a long shell where it consumes noxious chemicals at the bottom of muddy lagoons. There's a video.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:19 PM on August 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

99% of wasp species are generally our friends and allies

Apparently those little bastards haven't been told about it in MY part of the country, because they're definitely out to get me.

And I am the woman that shooed a coiled and hissing rattlesnake off the road yesterday to make sure nobody ran over him.

I'm all live-and-let-live until somebody sneaks up behind me and actually bites.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:22 PM on August 31, 2018 [6 favorites]

Hell, just peruse the entire Nature Is Scary twitter feed. I'll be curled up in the corner with a blanket and a shotgun.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 8:22 PM on August 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

The enemy of my enemy is my fr—AAGH getitoffme getitoffme!!

*slaps frantically at arm, pants furiously*
posted by darkstar at 8:51 PM on August 31, 2018

Scientists also found that a fourth species was observing the vines attacking the wasps attacking the trees as well as the other wasps attacking the wasps in the galls. It was just hanging out, carefully studying the interactions between the species. And that was the freakiest species of them all.
posted by bleep at 10:09 PM on August 31, 2018 [17 favorites]

just peruse the entire Nature Is Scary twitter feed

And when you're done with that, there's always Horrifying Planet.
posted by flabdablet at 11:21 PM on August 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

The enemy of my enemy is my fr—AAGH getitoffme getitoffme!!

*slaps frantically at arm, pants furiously*

If this is how you think of and interact with your arm, you may wish to consider the wide range of professional help available.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:03 AM on September 1, 2018 [6 favorites]

Alas, I have oaks with rust, costing me treatment bills. They are too big and beautiful not to save.
My hickory have galls, but not a big deal.
Ashes have borers, and more treatment bills or removal bills. Ouch.
Maples quietly wrap their own roots around themselves and choke. :-(
Owning a forest isn't all fun.
posted by Goofyy at 4:35 AM on September 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

On second thought, I'm not going to read the article. I'd rather read The Ruins, a book that assures me it is fiction.
posted by Monochrome at 9:09 AM on September 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

I just checked out the plot of The ruins, and there're some vines that "contain an acidic sap that burns their hands". Not too far from fact, there's the Chechen tree in the Yucatan that supposedly burns one's skin even if one rests in the shade , and of course the famous manchineel, the most toxic tree ever.
posted by dhruva at 10:12 AM on September 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

Speaking as a new lawn-care-for-er, I am on the side of anything that is NOT on the side of the wasps.

Unless it's mosquitoes. Because HELL no.
posted by invincible summer at 1:41 PM on September 1, 2018

My favourite sentence from the crypt keeper wasp article:

Eventually, the crypt-keeper turns into an adult and chews its way to freedom, through the head of its roommate/larder/wall-plug.
posted by Omnomnom at 3:34 PM on September 1, 2018 [3 favorites]

Eventually, the crypt-keeper turns into an adult and chews its way to freedom, through the head of its roommate/larder/wall-plug.
posted by Omnomnom

Nice sound effects
posted by cynical pinnacle at 12:21 AM on September 2, 2018 [5 favorites]

Wasps are one of the coolest groups of animals on the planet, parasitic ones in particular. I love that the trees make too many acorns anyway so the wasps aren't really hurting anything, the wasps make many pupae, so the vines can likewise feed without too much trouble.
posted by GoblinHoney at 1:42 PM on September 4, 2018 [1 favorite]