Scientists discover parasitic plant that turns wasps into MUMMIES

Unbeknownst to scientists, two parasites have been battling it out in the oak scrub habitat of South Florida. An evolutionary biologist has discovered the first known example of a bizarre interaction between gall wasps and a wispy orange plant called the love vine. The love vine, researchers found, latch onto the egg-containing growths deposited by wasps onto the underside of oak leaves and feed off the contents as the larva matures, eventually leaving behind the mummified carcass of an adult wasp. Researchers gathered samples along a 1,000-mile stretch through Florida for study in the lab, and noticed something unusual: S-shaped twists of love vines growing between the galls (as seen above). 'I had never seen this,' said Rice University evolutionary biologist Scott Egan, who has studied gall-forming insects for 17 years.