What is Parasitoid?
[[File:Collinia sp.jpg|right|thumb|300px|[[Scanning electron microscope|SEM]] image of endoparasitoid [[ciliate]]s of the genus ''[[Collinia]]'', which can cause mass mortality in affected [[krill]] populations]] '''Parasitoids''' are [[parasites]] whose [[larvae]] develop inside another organism's body.<ref>Godfray H.C.J. 1994. ''Parasitoids: behavioral and evolutionary ecology''. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-00047-3</ref> This usually results in the death of the [[Host (biology)|host]], which sets them apart from 'traditional' parasites.<ref name=Askew>Askew R.R. 1971. ''Parasitic insects''. London.</ref> There are twelve [[Superfamily|superfamilies]] of [[parasitic wasps]] which are entirely or mainly parasitoid. The largest family are the [[ichneumon]]s, with over 80,000 species. In parasitoids the adult stage is free-living: it finds the 'host' for the next generation. The female parasitoid places the eggs, on or in the body of a host. The host is food for their growth. Normal parasites use [[Vector (biology)|vectors]] as the way of getting to other hosts. In [[Hymenoptera]] there are many variations. The distinction between the 'parasitic' and the 'traditional' hymenoptera can run very thin. In Britain there are about 6500 species of Hymenoptera {{ndash}} more than in any other insect order {{ndash}} and just one parasitoid superfamily, the Ichneumonoidea, has nearly half of them. Most workers now recognise only two families in Ichneumonoidea. These are [[Ichneumon]]idae, with over two thousand British species, and Braconidae, with nearly 1200 representatives in Britain. They are, respectively, the largest and the second largest families of British insects.<ref name=Askew/> Only a [[beetle]] family, the Staphylinidae, is near the thousand mark. Ichneumonoids also include the largest parasitoids. [[File:BodyGuardparasitoid.JPG|thumb|right|Koinobiont parasitoid on moth larva.]] Hymenopteran parasitoids often have unique [[life cycle]]s. In one family, the [[Trigonalidae]], the female wa