By the time Matvey Nikelshparg was 13, he was obsessed with parasitoid wasps, tiny insects that lay their eggs on or inside other bugs. Under a microscope in a lab he had assembled at home, he discovered that one species had a startling superpower: It could use an organ that protrudes from its abdomen to drill through a plastic petri dish. Eupelmus messene is a whisper of a wasp. The insect’s target is the larvae of other wasp species, which lay their eggs inside of galls in an effort to protect them from danger. In his experiments at home, Mr. Nikelshparg had set out to study what would happen if there were multiple E. messene wasps and only one host larva.

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Persons: Nikelshparg, messene Organizations: Saratov State University, Research Locations: Russia