Parasitoid
![SEM image of endoparasitoid ciliates of the genus Collinia, which can cause mass mortality in affected krill populations](/Images/godic/202502/14/Collinia_sp5829.jpg")
![Various endoparasitoids of the moth Phauda flammans](/Images/godic/202502/14/lossy-page1-220px-Parasite150073-fig2_-_Endoparasitoids_of_Phauda_flammans_larvae.tif5829.jpg")
![Female Apocephalus borealis ovispositing into the abdomen of a worker honey bee.](/Images/godic/202502/14/Female_Apocephalus_borealis_ovipositing_into_the_abdomen_of_a_worker_honey_bee5829.png")
![Braconidae wasp cocoons on giant leopard larva](/Images/godic/202502/14/BrachnoidWaspOnGiantLeopardLarva5829.JPG")
A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilizes or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host. Thus, parasitoids are similar to typical parasites except in the more dire prognosis for the host.