After pupating in the host, winged males emerge and fly in search of mates.
Females remain larviform, legless and wingless, partially projecting from host's abdomen.
Female Strepsiptera are unusually fecund. And secondly, the trochanters, a leg segment present in all other insects, is missing in all strepsipterans. An oral secretion produced by triungulin larvae softens the host's exoskeleton enough to aid entry of the tiny parasite.