''Halictoxenos borealis'' is a species of the order Strepsiptera of flying insects, that

parasitize Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has c ...

sweat bees (''Lasioglossum''). Nakase and Kato (2021) found that the parasitised bees ('' Lasioglossum apristum'') changed their behaviour and visit flowers not to forage but to release the first-instar larvae of their parasite ''Halictoxenos borealis''. It seems that only female ''Halictoxenos borealis'' made their host bees visit flowers. Parasitised bees kept visiting nectarless flowers (''

Hydrangea serrata ''Hydrangea serrata'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Hydrangeaceae, native to mountainous regions of Korea and Japan. Common names include mountain hydrangea and tea of heaven. Growing to tall and broad, it is a deciduous shrub w ...

'' in this study), even though this behaviour might have had negative effect on them. Bees that were parasitized by a female strepsipteran during the larval-releasing stage, may encourage the discharge of mobile first-instar larvae onto flowers. This behavior benefits the parasite. Only once the larvae have reached a specific stage of development may streptopteran parasites affect the behavior of their host. It is only adult females who parasite, no males nor immature females’ parasite the bees.

References

Strepsiptera Parasites of bees Insects described in 1982 {{Strepsiptera-stub