Parasitoid Wasps Filmed Attacking Ants From the Air For First Time
Posted on August 29, 2011
Tiny parasitoid wasps (less than 2.0 mm in size) have been filmed attacking ant workers from the air for the first time by Jose Maria Gomez Duran from Madrid. The four species of wasps use a variety of different the tactics to deposit eggs inside the ants. Two of the four filmed species are new to science. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
In the first video below, female parasitoid wasps attempt to deposit eggs in ant work and are highly successful, although one of the ants manages to grab a wasp from the air near the end of the clip. In the second slow motion video the wasp's attack on the ant takes just 0.05 seconds. Take a look:
You can see two more videos of parasitoid waps attack ants here and here.
- Fossil of Giant Freshwater Turtle Discovered
- Hubble Observes Stormy Weather on Jupiter
- Australian Spider Named After Marvel's Venom
- NASA's JWST Captures New Views of NGC 604
- Ancient Giant Sea Lizard Had Dagger-Like Teeth