Question: You are of course a very unique species, though my question would be what advantages and disadvantages do you have to more common species of Gadus morhua, such as the common house fly?

Twisted-wing Fly answered on 24 Nov 2017:

Advantage: I can control hosts that are not beneficial to humans such as rice planthoppers that spread viruses in rice plants. It might be taken that since the host dies after I emerge it is a disadvantage to the host but studying in detail with a genome sequence how I maintain a host after I parasitize it in spite of me eating most of its insides will be advantage to the study parasitic immune resistance in humans. I think this is what is one of my unique features. I am not sure what genes cause it but a study of my genome will reveal this absolutely important feature.