US Edition99-Million-Year-Old Wasp With Venus Flytrap-Like Abdomen Discovered in Amber
- On Wednesday, scientists reported the discovery of over a dozen female Sirenobethylus charybdis wasps, a new species of ancient wasp, preserved in 99-million-year-old amber from the Kachin region in northern Myanmar.
- These ancient wasps, potentially zipping among dinosaurs, share a resemblance to modern-day parasitic wasps, such as cuckoo and bethylid wasps, which exploit insects to host their young.
- The wasp's abdomen features flappy paddles lined with bristles, resembling a Venus flytrap, which researchers believe was used to cushion and restrain wriggly prey while the wasp laid its egg, allowing the larva to feed on the still-living host.
- Lars Vilhelmsen, a study co-author from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, described the wasp's abdomen as resembling "a small bear trap attached to the end of it," while Lynn Kimsey, an entomologist from the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the study, stated, "I've seen a lot of strange insects, but this has to be one of the most peculiar-looking ones I've seen in a while."
- Published in BMC Biology by researchers from Capital Normal University and the Beijing Xiachong Amber Museum in China, the study of this unique insect, which may represent a new family, highlights the diverse parasitoid strategies present during the mid-Cretaceous period and emphasizes that "many really exceptional, odd things already happened," according to wasp expert Gabriel Melo from the Federal University of Paran in Brazil.
85 Articles
85 Articles
Parasitic wasp from time of dinosaurs preserved in amber
In an event mirroring Hollywood, palaeontologists have uncovered a kind of parasitic wasp preserved in amber which lived almost 100 million years ago. Sirenobethylus charybdis. Credit: Qiong Wu. Its unique parasitic behaviour is more similar to a plant than an insect. Viewers of Steven Spielberg’s classic Jurassic Park (1993) may recall the opening scene where miners uncover a mosquito trapped in amber. The dinosaur blood within the mosquito is …
This bizarre prehistoric animal had a Venus Flytrap-like structure on its abdomen
This weird wasp shared the Earth with the dinosaurs nearly 100 million years ago. Paleontologist studying specimens of the animal preserved in amber were surprised to find a strange structure on its abdomen. While functioning similar to the Venus flytrap, the flap mechanism wasn't used to eat. — Read the rest The post This bizarre prehistoric animal had a Venus Flytrap-like structure on its abdomen appeared first on Boing Boing.
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