Hyperparasite

A hyperparasite is a parasite whose host is a parasite. This form of parasitism is especially common among entomophagous parasites. The term is used loosely to refer also to parasitoids whose hosts are parasites or parasitoids; the distinction is not always clear or of interest in practice.

A well-studied case of hyperparasitoidism is the small cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae). The P. rapae larvae are parasitized by the larvae of the wasps Cotesia glomerata and C. rubecula, both of which are in turn parasitized by the wasp Lysibia nana.

Jonathan Swift refers to hyperparasitism in these lines from his poem "On Poetry: A Rhapsody":

So nat'ralists observe, a flea Hath smaller fleas that on him prey; And these have smaller fleas to bite 'em. And so proceeds ad infinitum.

Hyperhyperparasites have also been observed (specifically, a fungus on a fungus on a fungus on a tree).