Mirothrips arbiter (Phlaeothripidae) was recently described living in active nests of few Polistine wasp species in Brazil. Its closest relatives, Mirothrips analis and Mirothrips bicolor, are presumably predators on minute arthropods on plants and dead twigs.

However, M. arbiter developed a very audacious way of life. Its whole life cycle is completed inside the nests of social wasps and adults and larvae feed on their eggs (see photos)!!

The exploitation of this rich, but particularly protected and dangerous ecological niche, inside a wasp colony, represents one of the most evolutionarily advanced and rarest lifestyles known among Thysanoptera.

Want to know more?

See:

Cavalleri, A; De Souza, A.R.; Prezotto, F. & Mound, L.A. (2013) Egg predation within the nests of social wasps: a new genus and species of Phlaeothripidae, and evolutionary consequences of Thysanoptera invasive behaviour. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 109, 332–341. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/d…/10.1111/bij.12057/abstract