UPSC Prelims 2024 Question:

Consider the following

1. Carabid beetles
2. Centipedes
3. Flies
4. Termites
5. Wasps
   
   

Parasitoid species are found in how many of the above kind of organisms?

Explanation:

• Parasitoids are small insects whose immature stages develop either within or attached to the outside of other insects, referred to as hosts.
  
  
• Parasitoids eventually kill the host they feed on, as opposed to parasites like fleas and ticks, which typically feed upon hosts without killing them.
  
  
• There are two general categories of parasitoids: endoparasitoids, which hatch within the host from eggs or larvae laid there by an adult female, and then feed and develop inside the host; and ectoparasitoids, which are fastened to the outside of the host and feed through the host skin, sucking out body fluids.
  
  
• Most parasitoids are either wasps and bees (Hymenoptera) or flies (Diptera), although a few species of beetles, twisted-wing insects, moths, and other insects have been identified as parasitoids.
  
  

Therefore, option (2) is the correct answer.

Subject: Environment | Plant and Animal Anatomy