New ‘horror’ wasp species discovered in US: ‘We didn’t think it was real’, scientists admit

A bee in your bonnet has nothing on a wasp in your belly.

Mississippi scientists have discovered a new species of wasp that lays eggs in living flies so that the babies hatch from their wombs, Nature reports.

“At the time we didn’t think it was true,” lead study author Logan Moore, a biologist at Mississippi State University, told Live Science.

Females of this interspecific infiltrator, called syntretus perlmani, reproduce by inserting their hypoderm-like ovipositor—the stinger in stinging wasps—into the abdomen of a fruit fly to deposit its eggs.

This embryo then hatches into a tiny spiny-tailed larva, which develops inside the still-living host for about 18 days before bursting out of its abdomen, causing a fatal colic.

“Just to add another layer of horror, the fly will normally stay alive for several hours after that,” Moore said. The wasp’s terrifying mode of reproduction has drawn comparisons to the xenomorphs in Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic Alien.

These fruit fly invaders are considered parasitoids rather than parasites because they always kill their hosts unlike the latter, which generally leave them alive.

Perlmani, which is the only species of wasp known to infect fruit flies, was first discovered last year in a Mississippi backyard by scientists collecting a type of fruit fly called drosophila affinis. They were reportedly checking them for parasitic worms called nematodes.

Moore couldn’t believe his eyes at first, saying, “If you scatter thousands of flies, you’re going to see some things that are weird and strange and you’ll never see them again,” the researcher said.

After collecting several wasp larvae, his team confirmed their identity by raising them in a lab and studying their DNA.

Upon arrival at their new digs, the babies reportedly left their host’s bodies and burrowed into the provided substrate, where they remained for 23 days before emerging as fully developed adult wasps.

Meanwhile, later research revealed that the wasps also infected other fruit fly species.

While this parasitic pregnancy may seem like a horrible way to die, this discovery is perhaps a boon to people concerned about their own production.

As their name suggests, fruit flies like to eat ripe fruit or vegetables and often continue to breed in drains, garbage and empty bottles, making it difficult to expel them from the kitchen.

Although not technically dangerous, they are considered a major concern and can be a sign of unsanitary conditions.

“Almost everyone in the world has had some kind of interaction with this fly, usually not in a good context,” Moore noted.

Why did it take so long to discover something that infects such a common household pest?

Moore theorized: “I would say that probably the only thing that would explain why it has gone undiscovered for so long is because no one expects it. No parasitoid wasp has been known to infect the adult stage beyond itself Drosophilabut of flies in general.”

He claimed that its existence leaves us “wondering what else is out there on our doorstep right now”.

Conservative estimates suggest that there are between 500,000 and 1 million species of parasitoid wasps worldwide.

Among the most famous is the tarantula hawk, a sparrow-sized wasp that inhabits the American Southwest and is known for paralyzing and saturating its arachnid namesake.