Image Gallery: Who Hosts Wolbachia?

The fruit fly Drosophila is one of many hosts of the bacteria Wolbachia. In these flies, Wolbachia causes a form of reproductive failure termed cytoplasmic incompatibility. It leads to the death of offspring that have not inherited the infection from their mother.

The woodlouse, often called a pill bug, is a host for the bacteria Wolbachia. Wolbachia cause feminization: it will invade male offspring and force them to develop as females instead of males.

Hypolimnas bolina, better known as the blue moon butterfly, is a host of Wolbachia. Wolbachia influences the population in favor of its preferred sex by killing male embryos, skewing the population as high as 100 to 1 in favor of females.

I Contain Multitudes is a multi-part video series dedicated to exploring the wonderful, hidden world of the microbiome.