The rear end of this ancient wasp was built like a Venus flytrap

The rear end of this ancient wasp was built like a Venus flytrap

One ancient type of wasp appears to have had an especially freaky way to trap prey 99 million years ago. It used a mouth-like structure on its backside, fossils now suggest. “When you look at the head, the thorax and the wings, [this wasp] looks quite normal,” says Lars Vilhelmsen. But its abdomen is very different, the insect biologist points out. Most stinging wasps, such as yellow jackets, have rounded abdomens that end in a point. The ancien…