Japan: discover Godzilla, an underwater wasp …

A group of scientists, led by Canadian José Fernández-Triana of the National Insect Collection of Canada, managed to film a rare species of wasp hitherto unknown, which can dive in water. The discovery, which occurred in the Japanese island of Honshu, This surprised the scientific world since less than 0.1% of the wasps identified have an underwater dexterity.

To this species of the subfamily Microgastrinae they baptized her Microgaster Godzilla. “Being a Japanese species, its name respectfully honors Godzilla, a fictional monster (kaiju) who became an icon after the 1954 Japanese film of the same name and many subsequent versions. It has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture in the world, ”explained Fernández Triana.

The researchers found and were able to record for the first time how a wasp was submerged underwater for several seconds, to attack and eliminate caterpillars.

In the video, a female wasp can be seen walking on floating plants in search of its host, the larvae of the butterfly species Elophila turbata. These butterflies create a sort of box made from fragments of aquatic plants and live inside near the surface of the water. The wasp dives into its search, forces a caterpillar out of its box and quickly parasitizes them by inserting their eggs.

The discovery was published in Journal of Hymenoptera Research, under the signature of Fernández Triana, Tetsuyuki Kamino and three other Japanese scientists, as well as the video that testifies to the discovery, since Although on other occasions the species has been seen roaming the water, its immersion has never been recorded..

“From a biological and morphological point of view, it is a very unusual spice. It represents the third known aquatic microgastrinae, and the first that has been found entering water, ”details the work. So far 2,000 varieties of wasps have been analyzed and described, but entomologists estimate that an average of 5,000 more remain to be classified.