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by mc_maurer 635 days ago
The term for parasitoids that attack other parasitoids is a "hyperparasitoid". I did my PhD on parasitoids that attack aphids, but I've never heard of a hyper-hyperparasitoid, do you have any reference to that example?
3 comments

I was under the impression that it’s fairly common?

  The caterpillar: Often a pest species like the tomato leafminer
  Primary parasitoid: Cotesia glomerata
  Secondary parasitoid: Lysibia nana and some species from the genus Gelis like agilis
  Tertiary parasitoid: Certain species within the Trichogramma or Eulophidae families.
I recently discovered the existence of hyperparasitoid wasps much to the delight of my entomologist friend. That these things fly and have working nervous system (apparently ditching the neuronal nuclei during metamorphosis?), the ability to navigate etc. continues to blow my mind. They are so tiny!

https://www.nature.com/articles/480294a

Wow! At that size, I wonder if it's even technically still flying, or more like swimming through a thick Brownian motion soup.
I love this type of studies is your thesis available somewhere on the web?