A rather nasty way to go!

I came across this scene of carnage among the marram grass on the Sands of Forvie. The whole scene measures only 2 cms across but it tells of a death that you would not wish on your worst enemy!

The horror story began when an adult female parasitic wasp injected her eggs directly into the body cavity of an unfortunate caterpillar. The parasitoid larvae, after hatching, fed on the body tissues of the caterpillar, sucking it dry and eventually killing it. Once the larvae were fully grown and developed they burst out through the caterpillar's skin and then spun themselves the silken cocoons attached to the shriveled host. They will pupate inside the cocoons and then emerge as adult wasps later in the summer, to mate and to infect the next generation of hosts.

Now you know that the scenes in the film Alien were not as far-fetched as you might have thought!