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Teeny wasps attacking ants

submitted by mintbbb

1 decade 3 years 2 months 3 weeks ago

LL: Videos showing flight attacks of tiny parasitoid wasps on ant workers have featured in the latest edition of the open access journal ZooKeys. The videos by Spanish researcher José María Gómez Duránfeature four species of wasps, no larger than 2.0 mm in size, demonstrating amazing adaptations and enormous differences in the tactics they use.

Ants are a very dominant group in nature and well-equipped to defend themselves. Only a few small parasitoids manage to break through their defence, thanks to very different and amazing adaptations.

The eggs of the Braconidae develop inside adult ants. The eggs of the Ichneumonidae, however, develop in the larvae of ants. How the newly developed young wasps manage to survive inside the ant nest is still unknown. One of the possible explanations is that dead ants may be deposited outside the entrance of the ant nest, thus giving the young wasps a chance to emerge, avoiding a lethal attack on themselves.