Whether you are an ant, frog, or elephant, you are connected by the same problem. You need to find shelter and food for your young. Despite the common problem, animals have evolved a huge array of solutions, some give birth to live young and carry them in flesh pockets while feeding the hairless babies white fluid, while others sit on growing fetuses in shells and later regurgitate in the hatched baby’s mouths. 

But the weirdest way to approach the problem (or the best, depending on your viewpoint) is parasitism. Why find a home and food for your young when you can hijack someone else’s good work? This is what parasitoid wasps are specialized in. And this is what we focus on in this episode. 

The episode mentions the Nature Festival, a bid for naming a new wasp species, and a Biological Society of South Australia quiz night. These have all past. But keep in the loop by visiting https://www.naturefestival.org.au/ and https://biologysocietysa.com/index.html. <style>/*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 08-01-2024 */<br />
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