\[ **BT: [[eukaryotes]]** ] --- # parasites and parasitoids [[Predators and parasitoids help keep plant-eating insects in check.]][^1] ## parasites [[Parasites are invertebrate organisms that live on or in another organism; the parasite benefits at the expensive of the host organism.]][^2] ## parasitoids Parasitoids are a type of parasite.[^3] [[Parasitoids spend part of their life cycle as a parasite and part as a predator.]][^4] [[Like parasites, parasitoids infect their host and use them for nutrients; however, parasitoids kill their host as part of their life cycle.]][^5] ![[Australian Museum, ‘Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids’, 2022#^2cb53d]] --- ## examples of parasites and/or parasitoids ### fungi - [[hypocrealeans#Ophiocordyceps unilateralis (zombie-ant fungus)|zombie-ant fungus]] (parasitoid) ### wasps - *[[insects#*Hyposoter horticola*|Hyposoter horticola]]* (parasitoid) [^1]: ‘[[Australian Museum, ‘Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids’, 2022|Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids]]’, *Australian Museum*, updated 6 April 2022, https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/predators-parasites-and-parasitoids/. [^2]: ’[[Australian Museum, ‘Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids’, 2022|Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids]]‘, *Australian Museum*, updated 6 April 2022, https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/predators-parasites-and-parasitoids/. [^3]: Allanah Mott, ‘[[Mott, ‘A Miniature Zombie Apocalypse’, 2021|A Miniature Zombie Apocalypse: How One Fungus Controls the Minds and Bodies of Ants to Send Them to Their Demise]]’, *Scientific Scribbles* (University of Melbourne), last updated 17 September 2021, https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sciencecommunication/2021/09/17/a-miniature-zombie-apocalypse-how-one-fungus-controls-the-minds-and-bodies-of-ants-to-send-them-to-their-demise/. [^4]: Michael Allaby, ed., *A Dictionary of Zoology* (Oxford University Press, 2020), 5th ed., s.v. ‘parasitoid’, https://www-oxfordreference-com.rp.nla.gov.au/view/10.1093/acref/9780198845089.001.0001/acref-9780198845089-e-6370. [^5]: Allanah Mott, ‘[[Mott, ‘A Miniature Zombie Apocalypse’, 2021|A Miniature Zombie Apocalypse: How One Fungus Controls the Minds and Bodies of Ants to Send Them to Their Demise]]’, *Scientific Scribbles* (University of Melbourne), last updated 17 September 2021, https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sciencecommunication/2021/09/17/a-miniature-zombie-apocalypse-how-one-fungus-controls-the-minds-and-bodies-of-ants-to-send-them-to-their-demise/; ‘[[Australian Museum, ‘Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids’, 2022|Predators, Parasites and Parasitoids]]’, *Australian Museum*, updated 6 April 2022, https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/predators-parasites-and-parasitoids/.