How to Use parasitoid in a Sentence

parasitoid

noun
  • There are fly parasitoids that decapitate (or take the heads off) fire ants.
    — Lela Nargi, Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2019
  • The blooms also attract the parasitoid wasp that lays its eggs on tomato hornworms.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 9 May 2026
  • Some of the parasitoids turned out to be Bootanomyia dorsalis from Europe.
    — Maria Azzurra Volpe, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 Aug. 2025
  • Karma is a real pest for parasitoids, tiny parasitic wasps that lay their eggs on caterpillars.
    — Mitch Leslie, Science | AAAS, 30 Apr. 2018
  • For proof of how perplexing these attacks are, consider what parasitoid wasps do to spiders.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 30 Apr. 2019
  • These include pollinators as well as predators and parasitoids that feed on garden pests.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Similarly, female parasitoid wasps will compete over the most desirable hosts in which to lay their eggs.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 29 Oct. 2020
  • The chrysalis is unpacked, inspected for any sign of disease or parasitoids, then pinned to foam boards and placed into the emergence chamber.
    — Kathy Berdan, Twin Cities, 12 June 2017
  • The flowers produce tiny nectaries sized just right to draw in syrphid flies, ladybeetles, and parasitoid wasps, all of which feed on aphids.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Conserve biological control agents such as predators and the parasitoids that feed on insect pests.
    — oregonlive, 1 Apr. 2022
  • Ants consume a lot of their honeydew and, in exchange, protect Hemiptera from enemies like parasitoids or predators.
    — Lesley Evans Ogden, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Jan. 2024
  • Recently the researchers used bar coding to take a closer look at 16 species of parasitoid flies known to scientists for more than a century.
    — Richard Conniff, Discover Magazine, 18 Nov. 2010
  • Most efforts to control invasive insects have relied on parasites and parasitoids, which lay eggs and complete their life cycles in or on the target species.
    — Gabriel Popkin, Science | AAAS, 15 Jan. 2020
  • Shockley says other parasitoids use their hosts’ existing behaviors.
    — Lela Nargi, Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2019
  • Sensory arsenal on the stinger of the parasitoid jewel wasp and its possible role in identifying cockroach brains.
    — Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 28 Oct. 2014
  • Like dill, the small nectaries in cilantro flowerheads attract parasitoids, ladybeetles, lacewings, and syrphid flies that feed on small, soft-bodied garden pests.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 5 Apr. 2026
  • Many of the same plants that attract pollinators to the garden also provide resources that support insect predators and parasitoids of cucumber pests.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Cilantro flowers are very small, perfect for attracting parasitoids and predators that feed on garden pests like Colorado potato beetle and tomato fruitworms.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 9 May 2026
  • Cilantro flowers are very small, perfect for attracting parasitoids and predators that feed on garden pests like Colorado potato beetle and tomato fruitworms.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 28 June 2024
  • In total, these three operations detected 1,414 species of parasitoid wasps.
    — Elizabeth Anne Brown, Scientific American, 1 July 2026
  • The flowers are sized just right to support a great diversity of insects with small mouthparts, including syrphids, parasitoid wasps, lacewings, and ladybeetles.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 16 Apr. 2026
  • Technically speaking, the alien is a parasitoid, an organism that, unlike most parasites, ultimately kills its host.
    — Kenneth C. Catania, Scientific American, 1 Feb. 2021
  • This sentence was edited after posting to correct the description of researchers evaluating parasitoids.
    — Meghan Bartels, Scientific American, 18 Sep. 2024
  • These attract a variety of beneficial insects including parasitoid wasps, lacewings, and syrphid flies, all of which feed on aphids, whiteflies, insects eggs, and other garden pests.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 5 Apr. 2026
  • The flowers also attract tachinid flies, an important parasitoid of cucumber beetles, which can be quite devastating to cucumber plants.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 3 Apr. 2026
  • In addition to predators, cilantro flowers attract tachinid flies and parasitoid wasps, which attack cucumber beetles and caterpillar pests of cucumbers.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 3 Apr. 2026
  • As members of the aster family, tansy blooms consist of hundreds of tiny flowers packed tightly together that support parasitoid wasps, small native bees, honeybees, lacewings, and syrphid flies.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Condos is also encouraged by the potential for parasitoid introduction.
    — Marc McAndrews, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Sep. 2020
  • The system is further complicated by other players, including ladybug beetles, white halo fungus and a parasitoid fly that limits ant numbers.
    — Lesley Evans Ogden, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The larvae of polyembryonic parasitoid wasps, which hatch from eggs that are laid on top of caterpillar eggs, occasionally develop into adults that are not just infertile but have a habit of eating other larvae.
    — Tim Brinkhof, Discover Magazine, 9 Mar. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'parasitoid.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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