IF you're making a trip to Indonesia any time soon, beware – a new waspzilla has been discovered there with jaws longer than its front legs.
The warrior wasp is found on the remote island of Sulawesi and has been dubbed the 'Komodo dragon' of the wasp family.
And for good reason too - males of this stinging species measure an alarming two and a half inches long and have huge ninja-like mandibles.
Lynn Kimsey, entomologist of the University of California, Davis, encountered these fearsome flying beasts when on an expedition to the island.
"Its jaws are so large that they wrap up either side of the head when closed. When the jaws are open they are actually longer than the male's front legs. I don't know how it can walk."
Although these pesky pests mainly chomp on insects, if threatened they could leave a considerable mark on human flesh too.
Ms Kimskey intends to name the mini-beast 'Garuda' after the part-human, part eagle mythical creature that is a national symbol in Indonesia.
The wasp was discovered in the Mekongga Mountains in south-eastern Sulawesi, a little-explored Indonesian island between Borneo and New Guinea.
Ms Kimskey describes it as one of the top three islands for biodiversity in the world, along with Australia and Madagascar.
She and her team have now received a five-year £2.5 million grant to study the island's rich biodiversity that includes the dwarf buffalo and colonial spiders.
The nature fanatic hopes that the discovery of the warrior wasp will help raise awareness about how unique and treasured the region of Sulawesi is, estimating that hundreds of other new species could be catalogued.
Tiada ulasan:
Catat Ulasan