The ancient world was even freakier than we knew.
Scientists in China and Denmark detailed their discovery in a studypublishedlate Wednesday in the journal BMC Biology.
Theyve named the waspSirenobethylus charybdisa reference to the famous female sea monster of ancient Greek legend.
One of the amber-preserved specimens of Sirenobethylus Charybdis examined by researchers.© Qiong Wu
The bug and its unique appearance likely represents a previously unknown lineage of insects, the researchers say.
As is often the case in Greek mythology, there arevarying origin storiesfor Charybdis.
S. charybdismight have been a lot smaller than its eponym, but it certainly had its own monstrous-looking features.
A reconstruction ofSirenobethylus charbybdis. © Xiaoran Zuo
charybdisis a member of the parasitoid superfamily of insects called Chrysidoidea, albeit in an entirely new genus.
Often, this freeloader lifestyle quickly kills off the host, butS.
Theres no known insect living today with a similar strategy for catching hosts, the researchers note.
Accordingly, their discovery indicates that ancient parasitic insects likeS.
charybdishad all sorts of evolutionary adaptations that have since faded away.
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