(Image: Pen News/Erinn Fagan-Jeffries )

The Dolichogenidea xenomorph injects its eggs into a live host, which is gradually devoured from the inside out until the larvae burst free.

It’s named after the Xenomorph in Alien, which burst through the chest of John Hurt’s character after growing inside of him.

Lead researcher Erinn Fagan-Jeffries, a PHD student at the University of Adelaide, said the newly-discovered wasp targeted caterpillars.

“The wasps lay their eggs in their caterpillar hosts whilst they are still alive and then the baby wasps hatch inside the caterpillar, and slowly eat it whilst growing bigger and bigger inside,” she said.

(Image: Pen News/Erinn Fagan-Jeffries )

“This is all whilst the caterpillar is alive and going about its daily business!

“Eventually the wasps are big enough and they eat their way out, bursting out of the caterpillar and forming cocoons to change into adult wasps.

“What’s also awesome is that along with their eggs, they add in a symbiotic virus that can supress the caterpillar’s immune system, helping the eggs survive in its body.

“The virus can even alter the caterpillars behaviour and change what food it might eat!”

(Image: GETTY )

Ms Fagan-Jeffries said there was some resemblance to the movie monster too.

She said: “This wasp is also black and shiny with a really long ovipositor – the needle-like stinger it uses to inject its eggs.

“With enough imagination it resembles the long tail of the xenomorph alien!”

Despite their fierce behaviour, the Dolichogenidea xenomorph and other parasitoid wasps actually play a positive role in keeping down pest populations.

(Image: Pen News/Erinn Fagan-Jeffries )

Ms Fagan-Jeffries said: “In this group of wasps, some species lay just one egg in a host, some lay hundreds in the one caterpillar, and everything in between.

“I’ve seen the wasps of a different species emerge from live caterpillars before, and it’s definitely a slightly nauseating sight – you can’t help but feel a bit sorry for the caterpillar.

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“But at the same time, if there was nothing controlling caterpillar numbers, we’d have no plants left as they’d all be eaten!”

The new species has been found in Queanbeyan, New South Wales and in southern Western Australia, but is likely present elsewhere in the country.