Mississippi researchers were shocked to discover a new species of wasp. And it's about as horrific as you would imagine. So what's so scary? Well, the wasp lay eggs inside of flies. And they burst out of the still-living flies. It's exactly like the movie Alien on the scale of an insect.
"At the time we didn't think it was real," the study's lead author Logan Moore, a biologist at Mississippi State University, told Live Science. The females of the species use their hypodermic-like ovipositor to penetrate the torsos of fruit flies. From there, the insect will lay eggs on the fly. These eggs become embryos that then become larva. The larva explode out of the fly's abdomen killing the insect.
"Just to add an additional layer of horror, the fly will normally remain alive for several hours after that," said Moore. Dang nature, you're scary! These wasps always kill the flies as a result. It's the only species to infect fruit flies. Researchers discovered it while checking fruit flies in a Mississippi backyard.
Wasp Species
Initially, researchers were surprised. Moore said, "If you dissect thousands of flies, you will see some things that are strange and odd, and you'll never see them again."
The researchers raised the wasp larvae in their labs. They watched as the larvae developed into wasps and then infect other flies.
After collecting several of wasp larvae, his team confirmed their identity by raising them in a lab and studying their DNA. Researchers noted that the insects could help reduce the population of fruit flies. Flies are considered a common household pest.
"Almost everybody in the world has had some sort of interaction with this fly, usually not in a good context," More said. "I would say maybe the one thing that would explain why it's gone undiscovered for so long is because nobody is expecting it. No parasitoid wasp has been known to infect the adult stage of not just Drosophila, but of flies in general."
The researchers wonder what else they might find out there. It left them "wondering what else is out there on our doormat right now."
