[seek] talking about ant parasitism...

[Bertram Ludaescher]

Dave, Shawn (and all SEEKers):

Since you've looked into ant parasitism at one point, you might find
this story, well, interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4460030.stm

Do you get the same feeling?

(a) One tends to think of the alcon blue butterfly (Maculinea alcon)
as the 'nice guy'. Seems it's not inflicting too much damage on the
ant colony either (or is it?).

(b) But the wasp comes across as really quite nasty!! Eats the
butterfly from the inside... NOT NICE!

Interesting (but not that surprising) how we project our ways of
thinking onto the animal kingdom ... 

Bertram