Brood parasitism

Brood parasitism is a form of kleptoparasitism. Brood parasites manipulate the behaviour of the host so that the host raises the young of the parasite instead of the host's own young. A well known example of brood parasitism in birds is that of the cuckoo.

There are also many species of insect brood parasite. For example, cuckoo bees that lay their eggs within the brood chambers of other solitary bees. The young of the cuckoo bee then eats the pollen store and often the egg of the host species.

Brood parasitoids are parasites that kill the host's offspring during the course of their own development.

A photograph of the cuckoo bee (Coelioxys sp.) - a brood parasite of other solitary bees.
Photograph by Gideon Pisanty licensed under Creative Commons.

Related terms

• Host
• Kleptoparasite
• Parasite
• Parasitism
• Parasitoid

Related groups of terms

• General biology
• Insect life cycles

See other words beginning with B