Sunday’s winner of the World Scrabble Championship 2016 at the Grand Palais in Lille, France, gets 7,000 euros (about $7,818) in prize money.

'Braconid', the term for a parasitic wasp, helps Brett Smirtheram score 176 points and win the World Scrabble Championship. (Video: Reuters) ...

Braconid wasps play an important role in organic pest control. Braconids are beneficial insects that lay their eggs inside or on host insects and the maggot-like wasp larvae weaken the host pest.

Braconid, or parasitic wasp, helped Brett Smitheram triumph at the World Scrabble Championship. The word was good for 181 points.

A braconid is a parasitic wasp, and because Brett Smitheram knew the word and how to spell it, he’s 7,000 euros richer and the World Scrabble Champion. Smitheram, 37, is a British recruitment ...

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"Braconid" helped spell victory.It pays to enrich your word power — $7811 bucks, to be precise. That’s the tidy sum Brett Smitheram, 37, of London, took home by winning the World Scrabble ...

Each species of braconid wasp has its own specific bracovirus, but they all do the same thing: They suppress the caterpillar’s immune system and tweak its metabolism to favour the growing wasp.

Understanding Insect Metamorphosis John E. Woodmansee Photo: Tobacco hornworm on a tomato plant that has been attacked by a parasitic Braconid wasp. The white capsules on its back are the pupal stage ...

Even compared to Swift’s 6-inch tall Lilliputians, the one-sixteenth- to five-eighths-inch-long braconid is miniscule, a speck of dust on the wing.

A braconid is a parasitic wasp, and because Brett Smitheram knew the word and how to spell it, he's 7,000 euros richer and the World Scrabble Champion.