#definitely thought they were wasps at first
Papaya flies (Toxotrypanacurvicauda), unusually large and fucked up members of the fruit fly family Tephritidae that use the longest ovipositor I’ve ever seen on a fly to lay eggs in papayas.
The skin and flesh of unripened papayas is toxic, so they use their ovipositor to deposit eggs in the seeds, which are what the larvae feed on until the fruit is ripe. They’re kinda like a vegetarian fly version of Megarhyssawasps.
(Florida, 3/19/21)
When evolution wants to build a vegetarian parasitoid wasp but all it has to work with are fruit flies.
