Our group published a pair of papers on a new species of parasitoid wasp that can manipulate the behavior of its host for its own benefit.

Photograph by Andrew Forbes, University of Iowa

Weinersmith, K.L., S.M. Liu, A.A. Forbes, & S.P. Egan. 2017. Tales from the crypt: A parasitoid manipulates the behavior of its parasite host. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, in press.  *link*  

Egan S.P., K.L. Weinersmith, S. Liu, R.D. Ridenbaugh, Y.M. Zhang, & A.A. Forbes. 2017. Description of a new species of Euderus Haliday from the southeastern United States (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Eulophidae): the crypt-keeper wasp. ZooKeys 645: 37-49.   *link*

Our work has been featured in:
The Atlantic, National Geographic, BBC World, Science, Nature, New Scientist, Popular Science, Gizmodo, Live Science, The Daily Mail, The Scientist, CBS News, Futurity, Yahoo News, CBC Quirks & Quarks (Canada), & Futureproof (Ireland).

We also participated in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything”, where people could write in questions and we would answer them in real time. The results are archived here – Reddit Parasite AMA.

Rice University wrote a nice press release and made a video describing our discovery:

 

 

And French cartoonist Boulet illustrated our work: