This is a parasitoid (well, a drawing of one, anyway):

Drawing by David Morgan, taken from, ``The Hymenoptera'', edited by I. D. Gauld and B. Bolton, British Museum (Natural History), Oxford University Press, New York, 1988, pg. 196. This image is not used with permission and is undoubtedly Copyright. If the holder of the Copyright to this image wishes me to remove it, and I will.

I know what you're thinking: ``That looks like a wasp!'' Well, it is a wasp. But it's also a parasitoid, an insect that lays its eggs in (or on, or near) other arthropods (mostly other insects). The eggs hatch, and the larvae (you guessed it!) eat the host insect, killing it. Feel free to say, ``Yuck!''

Here are the three chapters of my disseration, as published:

• Lane, S.D., Mills, N.J. & Getz, W.M. (1999) The effects of parasitoid fecundity and host taxon on the biological control of insect pests: the relationship between theory and data. Ecological Entomology, 24, 181-190. (.pdf - 368K)
• Lane, S.D. & Mills, N.J. (2003) Intraspecific competition and density dependence in an Ephestia kuehniella - Venturia canescens laboratory system. Oikos, 101, 578-590. (.pdf - 208K)
• Lane, S.D., St. Mary, C.M. & Getz, W.M. (2006) Coexistence of attack-limited parasitoids sequentially exploiting the same resource and its implications for biological control. Ann. Zool. Fennici, 43, 17-34. (.pdf - 308K)

Lane, S.D. (2002) The ecological consequences of host density-dependence and parasitoid fecundity for host-parasitoid population dynamics. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. (.pdf - 6.3M)