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rare
Twisted-wing Parasite
Xenos vesparum
- Habitat
- Inside living paper wasps across southern Europe and the Mediterranean
- Body length
- 4 mm
- Order
- Strepsiptera · Xenidae
Weird but real
The female never leaves her wasp host — she's a headless, legless bag of eggs fused into its abdomen, mating through a tiny hatch.
Why it's cool
A parasite that hijacks a wasp into a roaming nursery, then sends out fan-winged, raspberry-eyed males that live a few frantic hours to find her.
