An old wasp may have zipped among the dinosaursWith a body like a Flytrap Venus to grasp and tear off its prey, scientists reported on Wednesday.
The parasitic wasp abdomen has a set of flappy paddles lined with thin hair, resembling “a small bear trap attached to the end,” said the co-author of the Lars Vilhelmsen study of the Natural History Museum of Danmark.
Scientists have discovered more than a dozen female wasps preserved in Amber of 99 million 99 million in the Kachin region, in northern Myanmar. The flaps of the wasp and the hairs in the shape of a teeth resemble the structure of the carnivorous plant of Venus, which closes to digest insects without distrust. But the design of the wasp’s outfit reminded of scientists that its trap was designed to amortize, not the crushing.
Instead, the researchers suggested that the Flytrap type structure had been used to hold a twisted insect still while the wasp laid an egg, placing a baby wasp to eat and drain its new host.
It is a game book adapted by many parasitic wasps, including modern cuckoo and bethylid wasps, to exploit insects. But no known wasp or other insect does it with bizarre shutters like this.
“I have seen a lot of strange insects, but it must be one of the most special that I have seen for some time,” said entomologist Lynn Kimsey of the University of California in Davis, who was not involved in research.