New Ghost Wasp discovered in Australia

A new insect has been discovered in a Northern Territory national park in Australia. The new variety of ghost wasp was found by two young wildlife photographers next to a swimming hole. “So, the subtropics, all the savannas up here, are just amazing. It's one of the most extensive and intact ecosystems, actually, in the entire world,” says Nick Volpe, Naturalist and wildlife photographer. ”Most people assume that we already know everything about the biodiversity in the natural world around us, but it couldn't be further from the truth,” says Lucyna Kania, Naturalist and wildlife photographer. What they found is a variety of the Gasteruption genus of wasps, more commonly called “ghost wasps” because they hover in a zigzag pattern. To give it a name, Volpe and Kania consulted local Jawoyn traditional owners. “It's called the Mam-Burrumurl wasp,” says Kania. In the local language, ‘mam’ means ‘ghost’ and ‘Burrumurl’ means ‘wasp.’ To learn more about this new type of wasp, Kania and Volpe sent samples to one of the main native Australian wasp experts. “As soon as I saw it, I knew it was something undescribed, something new. It's really distinctive compared to the rest of the Australian species, and it just blew my mind as soon as I saw it,” says Dr. Ben Parslow from the South Australian Museum. To survive and reproduce, the ghost wasp parasitizes a native bee’s nest by laying its eggs in it. Parslow says the discovery of the new wasp will help in trying to explain these unique host relationships. “It helps us begin to understand how these groups can occur together, but also how they've evolved.” “It's good to have species out there on the ledger so that we know what has been affected, what are we losing, so we can value it and make better decisions going forward,” says Kania. Now, Kania and Volpe are sharing the knowledge gathered from their new discovery with others like these school students. This article was provided by The Associated Press.