Some species can even self-medicate (with booze, no less) to cure themselves. If that fails, their immune system can sometimes destroy the developing larva. Host insects often have defences that stop parasitic flies and wasps from implanting them with eggs. This isnвЂ™t a case of resistance in the classical sense. Around 70 percent of the two-spotted or common eastern bumblebees dug their own graves when infected, but only 18 percent of the brown-belted bumblebees did so. The parasite forced all three species of bumblebee to dig, but with varying degrees of success. She found that a quarter of them were parasitised by a single conopid species-a black, wasp-like insect called Physocephala tibialis.

In the summer of 2012, Rosemary Malfi at the University of Virginia collected three closely related species of bumblebees from a local field. In this case, a fly turns a bee into a shovel.Д«ut not all bees make equally good shovels. There are wasps that turn caterpillars into head-banging zombie bodyguards, and fungi that make ants climb to the ideal locations for spores to grow. These kinds of manipulations are common in the world of parasites, many of which commandeer the brains and bodies of their hosts to ensure their own survival. If the host dies underground, the fly is sheltered and more likely to survive. If the host dies in the open, the developing fly faces months of cold, dehydration, fungi, and even other parasites. The adults emerge in the spring after spending the winter as pupae, hibernating inside their dead hosts. This behaviour didnвЂ™t matter to the bees, but it was critical for the flies.Д¬onopids have yearly life cycles. As soon as she put them on soil, they started to dig. In 1994, Christine Muller discovered that the vast majority of infested bumblebees bury themselves. Shortly, after, it forms a pupa and transforms into an adult. The fly maggot takes just under two weeks to kill its host, first by draining nutrients from its bodily fluids and then by actually eating it. A conopid can chase down a bee, grab it in mid-air, open it up, and implant it with an egg, without ever touching the ground. They use the hard tips of their abdomens like can-openers to prise apart the body segments of bees and wasps, so they can lay an egg inside. There are around 800 species of thick-headed flies or conopids, and theyвЂ™re all parasites. For its last act, it might as well dig its own grave. The soil is warm and safe, and makes for a better nursery for the developing fly.

And if that wasnвЂ™t an ignoble enough fate, the larva also forces the bee to burrow into the ground. The fly will lay an egg inside it and the larva will eat it alive. If a bumblebee is attacked by a thick-headed fly, itвЂ™s doomed.

Parasite in city game maker