Latest news with #QiongWu
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient wasp snatched prey like Venus flytrap, scientists say
An ancient wasp may have zipped among the dinosaurs, with a body like a Venus flytrap to seize and snatch its prey, scientists reported Wednesday. The parasitic wasp's abdomen boasts a set of flappy paddles lined with thin bristles, resembling "a small bear trap attached to the end of it," said study co-author Lars Vilhelmsen from the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Scientists uncovered over a dozen female wasps preserved in 99-million-year-old amber from the Kachin region in northern Myanmar. The wasp's flaps and teeth-like hairs resemble the structure of the carnivorous Venus flytrap plant, which snaps shut to digest unsuspecting insects. But the design of the wasp's getup made scientists think its trap was designed to cushion, not crush. Instead, researchers suggested the flytrap-like structure was used to hold a wriggly insect still while the wasp laid an egg, depositing a baby wasp to feed on and drain its new host. "We imagine it would have waited with the apparatus open, ready to pounce as soon as a potential host activated the capture response," lead researcher Qiong Wu said, according to the BBC. It's a playbook adapted by many parasitic wasps, including modern-day cuckoo and bethylid wasps, to exploit insects. But no known wasp or any other insect does so with bizarre flaps quite like this one. Researchers from Capital Normal University in Beijing said "nothing similar is known from any other insect," according to the BBC. "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," said entomologist Lynn Kimsey from the University of California, Davis, who was not involved with the research. Scientists named the new wasp Sirenobethylus charybdis, partly for the sea monster from Greek mythology that stirred up wild whirlpools by swallowing and expelling water. The new study was published in the journal BMC Biology and included researchers from Capital Normal University and the Beijing Xiachong Amber Museum in China. It's unclear when the wasp went extinct. Studying unusual insects like this one can help scientists understand what insects are capable of and how different they can be. "We tend to think that the cool things are only found today," said Gabriel Melo, a wasp expert at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil, who had no role in the study. "But when we have this opportunity, we see that many really exceptional, odd things already happened." Freed Israeli hostages call for end to war, to bring remaining Gaza hostages home What is the future of the Kennedy Center? Elton John, Brandi Carlile on their dream collaboration
CBS News
31-03-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Scientists discover ancient wasp that snatched prey like a Venus flytrap, name it after mythological sea monster
An ancient wasp may have zipped among the dinosaurs, with a body like a Venus flytrap to seize and snatch its prey, scientists reported Wednesday. The parasitic wasp's abdomen boasts a set of flappy paddles lined with thin bristles, resembling "a small bear trap attached to the end of it," said study co-author Lars Vilhelmsen from the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Scientists uncovered over a dozen female wasps preserved in 99-million-year-old amber from the Kachin region in northern Myanmar. The wasp's flaps and teeth-like hairs resemble the structure of the carnivorous Venus flytrap plant, which snaps shut to digest unsuspecting insects. But the design of the wasp's getup made scientists think its trap was designed to cushion, not crush. Instead, researchers suggested the flytrap-like structure was used to hold a wriggly insect still while the wasp laid an egg, depositing a baby wasp to feed on and drain its new host. "We imagine it would have waited with the apparatus open, ready to pounce as soon as a potential host activated the capture response," lead researcher Qiong Wu said, according to the BBC . It's a playbook adapted by many parasitic wasps, including modern-day cuckoo and bethylid wasps, to exploit insects. But no known wasp or any other insect does so with bizarre flaps quite like this one. Researchers from Capital Normal University in Beijing said "nothing similar is known from any other insect," according to the BBC. "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," said entomologist Lynn Kimsey from the University of California, Davis, who was not involved with the research. Scientists named the new wasp Sirenobethylus charybdis, partly for the sea monster from Greek mythology that stirred up wild whirlpools by swallowing and expelling water. The new study was published in the journal BMC Biology and included researchers from Capital Normal University and the Beijing Xiachong Amber Museum in China. It's unclear when the wasp went extinct. Studying unusual insects like this one can help scientists understand what insects are capable of and how different they can be. "We tend to think that the cool things are only found today," said Gabriel Melo, a wasp expert at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil, who had no role in the study. "But when we have this opportunity, we see that many really exceptional, odd things already happened."
BBC News
27-03-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Check out this ancient wasp with a flytrap for a bottom
This might look like the sort of wasp that will ruin your picnic this summer, but it's actually been preserved in amber for 99-million years. Its back end is very different to the wasps we know today though, looking more like carnivorous plant Venus Fly Trap than a classic stinger. It's thought the flaps would be help the wasps grab onto another creature and, in a gruesome twist, lay its eggs into from Capital Normal University in Beijing say "nothing similar is known from any other insect." The paddle shaped structure is lined with hairs and there are a couple of possible reasons for this. It could be for the wasp to catch prey or to hold onto a mate, but researchers think it was to help the wasp lay its eggs. Lead researcher Qiong Wu thinks the wasp was a kionobiont parasite, which means it lays its eggs in the bodies of other live insects or animals and that the flaps would have helped to trap the host while the wasp laid its eggs. He said: "We imagine it would have waited with the apparatus open, ready to pounce as soon as a potential host activated the capture response."
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Venus Flytrap Wasp: 99-Million-Year-Old Amber Reveals Bizarre New Species
A previously unknown species of wasp with an abdomen reminiscent of a Venus flytrap has been discovered in 99-million-year-old Kachin amber, and entomologists have never seen anything like it. While the insect's front half would pass for that of a modern wasp, its unique rear end would raise a hymenopteran eyebrow. "Nothing similar is known from any other insect," write the researchers behind a study on the insect's fossilized remains, led by Qiong Wu from Capital Normal University in Beijing. "The rounded abdominal apparatus, combined with the setae along the edges, is reminiscent of a Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula), a carnivorous plant using two opposing specialized leaves to capture insect prey." The wasp may not have eaten its own captives, but scientists think its babies probably did – from the inside, out. Sixteen adult female wasps were preserved in the amber well enough to describe them as a new species (and family), Sirenobethylus charybdis, all of which sport these rather unusual-looking abdomens. Lined with hairy bristles, the lower half of this paddle-shaped structure appeared frozen into different positions across the numerous specimens like a frame-by-frame replay, hinting at its grasping, jaw-like function. While it's possible the strange abdomen could be a means for the adult wasp to catch prey to consume, or to hold onto a mate, the researchers believe the wasp is a koinobiont parasite: the kind that lays its eggs into the bodies of live hosts to incubate until hatching. The flaps converge around the wasp's ovipositor; the tube through which eggs are injected. The researchers think the most likely function for the strange anatomy is to therefore temporarily restrain the host during the invasive egg-laying procedure. Many modern koinobiont wasps target slow-moving hosts like caterpillars and fly larvae to house their burgeoning offspring. This newly described wasp's grasping rear end would have broadened its options in this regard, allowing it to trap otherwise speedy hosts for long enough to inject eggs into their bodies. Living wasps in the dryinid family similarly restrain their flighty hosts (leafhoppers, treehoppers, and planthoppers) with their forelegs, but they're also known to actively track them down beforehand, something Sirenobethylus doesn't seem built for. But the trigger hairs on the wasp's grasper may have allowed it to instead lie in wait, its posterior maw lunging upon any hopper or fly to come within range. "We imagine it would have waited with the apparatus open, ready to pounce as soon as a potential host activated the capture response," the authors write. But it's difficult to verify this theory without being able to compare these female specimens with the species' males, which are missing from the record. If the trap aids only in egg-laying, then males may not have one. The absence of male specimens also makes it impossible to know whether the apparatus could have been involved in the mating process. "Indeed, it would be unique for insect females to restrain the males during mating, rather than the other way around," the authors write. "We consider this an unlikely function of the abdominal apparatus." This research was published in BMC Biology. Hear The First-Ever Recordings of Sharks Actively Making Noises Mysterious Golden Orb Found at The Bottom of The Ocean Scientist Who Discovered 'Dark Oxygen' Ignored It For Years. Here's Why.
