Reasons Why Evolution is True Part II:
Parasitoid Wasps

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Parasitoid wasps are a little known, but extremely prolific group of wasps, who provide one of the best examples of evidence for evolution that I’ve come across. Parasitoid wasps have a particularly gruesome way of life. They make a living by laying their eggs inside the larvae of another insect, often a caterpillar. As the young wasp develops, it devours the host from the inside out, eventually emerging and killing the host.

Parasitoid wasps are found in 37 different families of a single order, the Hymenoptera, which contains all bees, wasps and ants. There are thousands, maybe even millions of species of parasitoid wasp, each preying on a different host, utilising a different set of tactics to subdue their victim. Many parasitoid wasps are considered to be beneficial to humans because they kill garden pests such as aphids. But this is not the important part of the story.

While parasitoid wasps inflict an unpleasant death on their victims, they are not without something to fear themselves. Because out there, in nature, exists something more horrible – the hyperparasitoid wasp. Hyperparasitoid wasps lay their eggs within the developing larvae of parasitoid wasps – that is, a larva developing within a larva within a larva. And furthermore, there is such a thing as a superparasitoid wasp, whose eggs develop within the larvae of the hyperparasitoid. That these wasps are able to locate an appropriate host; a caterpillar with a parasitic larvae that has itself been parasitised by another wasp, is truly remarkable.

Parasitoid wasps and their higher-order parasites, are among the strangest and most unpleasant feats of evolution. They are extremely successful and our understanding of their biology is still very limited. They have been known since Darwin’s time though, and Darwin himself saw them as clear evidence against intelligent design and for evolution:

“I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars”.

Charles Darwin (1896)

Articles in this Series:

  1. Intro: Reasons Why Evolution is True
  2. Part One: The Panda’s Thumb
  3. Part Two: Parasitoid Wasps
  4. Part Three: Ring Species
  5. Part Four: Galapagos Finches
  6. Part Five: The Quirky Human Eye
  7. Part Six: Homology
  8. Part Seven: Coevolution
  9. Part Eight: PreCambrian Rabbits
  10. Part Nine: DIY Evolution
  11. Part Ten: Convergent Evolution

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3 comments on “Reasons Why Evolution is True Part II:
Parasitoid Wasps

  1. I’m sorry, you misunderstand. That we haven’t yet studied all the intricate details of a system is a measure of how varied, complex and beautiful the natural world is, not of our inability to explain it with science. Parasitoid wasps are easily and fully explained by evolution. It’s a classic case of adaptation – parasitoid wasps have evolved because there is an evolutionary niche available for them to exploit, however gruesome that may be.

  2. Evolution is true, because animals have evolved. You apply circular reasoning. Secondly, in the same vein your use of emotional arguments is kind of exhausting. There are wasps who eat alive other animals. *GASP. God does not exist.

    Sadly both of these are not good examples of why evolution is true. You really havnt explained anything outside of the diversity of Life. You still have MANY problems, such as the origin of all life, the problem with eternity, and most problematic it is proven that you CANNOT get life out of lifeless matter.

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