Finished 1 volume of Narnia. On to volume 2 - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Volume 1 was alright.

So one of the more obscure life cycles that i know of belongs to the parasitoid wasps, Dinocampus coccinellae. They are mean critters and destroy their host, various species of ladybirds.

The female wasp reproduces by parthenogenesis (rarely see any males), and lays her eggs in the ladybird. The first larvae that emerges has HUGE mandibles and commences feeding on her siblings (eggs). When she's done with them, she will feed on the trophic (nutritive cells) of the ladybird. Followed by the gonads. All this time, she grows larger, until she is ready to emerge from the host. She severes the motor neurons leading to the legs of the ladybird, paralysing him, then eats it way out of the ladybird. She then spins a cocoon under the ladybird abdomen, protected by the warning colouration on the ladybird, and reflex bleeding by the ladybird at the joints (toxins produced). Following metamorphosis, the adult wasp emerges from the cocoon, ready to lay her eggs in the next host. While the paralysed ladybird starves to death.

Cool huh. That's animal behaviour for you. I highly recommend everyone to take a class in animal behaviour. Enjoyable with loads of neat stories.