Scientists just lately found a brand new species of parasitic wasp, and its lifestyle is disturbing. New analysis printed this week in Nature describes the species, Syntretus perlmani, as a “parasitoid species,” which implies it infects after which kills the host species (not like most parasitic species, which hurt the hosts however don’t essentially kill them).
The scientists found S. perlmani whereas finding out fruit flies in March 2023. LiveScience reviews that whereas gathering wild fruit flies in a Mississippi yard, they discovered “a parasitoid wasp larva contained in the stomach of an grownup male [fruit fly].” Seems, the parasitic wasp was a brand new species.
Different parasitoid wasps infect bugs of their larval and pupal phases of life, however this species infects adults. In response to Logan Moore, a lead writer on the examine, “feminine S. perlmani use their needle-like ovipositor organ — the stinger in stinging wasps — to stab and deposit an egg inside a fruit fly’s stomach. The egg then hatches right into a tiny wasp larva, which grows contained in the fly for about 18 days earlier than leaving its host for lifeless.”
When it’s time to emerge, the wasp larva rip by the host’s stomach—like Alien, however in actual life.
“And simply so as to add an extra layer of horror, the fly will usually stay alive for a number of hours after that,” Moore advised LiveScience.
The brand new wasps go on to create one other era of wasps, infecting one other spherical of fruit flies. Ah, the circle of life.
Study extra by studying the analysis report right here.
