I am not sure of the exact species ID of this cutie that I found in my wash basin in the UK not long ago. Cute, but this is (and our word for a day) a koinobiont endoparasitoid.
OOOOOOk, so lets explain explain that: This is a parasitoid whose host continues to feed and grow after parasitization.
Lets take a step back and look at what a parasitoid is....its an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. So basically killing it off for the sake of its young. Like the landlords and property developers in Hong Kong really. But perhaps less like predation, and more general impoverishment. Did you know 1 in 5 people live below the poverty line in our great city? (I almost said Country....ooooooooooops).
Anyway, lets get back to safer ground.....
Among parasitoids, strategies range from living inside the host (endoparasitism), allowing it to continue growing before emerging as an adult, to paralysing the host and living outside it (ectoparasitism).
and here a close up of his head
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