photo #8766403

The body is no longer his. It belongs to them now. This caterpillar isn’t dying — it’s serving. Those pale, alien-looking larvae erupting from its skin are parasitic wasps, most likely from the genus Cotesia. After hatching inside its body, they chewed their way out… but didn’t kill their host. Instead, they rewired it. Now the caterpillar stands guard over their vulnerable cocoons like a zombified sentinel, twitching violently at any threat. It doesn’t eat. It doesn’t flee. It just protects the very parasites that destroyed it from within. This isn’t just parasitism. It’s manipulation on a cellular level. A puppet on strings made of instinct and invasion.