Amazon Wasp with Huge Stinger Can Just Haunt Your Nightmares

A new species is on the list of terrifying creatures of the Amazon: Calistoga crassicaudata . This is a tiny parasitoid wasp with a giant sting that the female uses not only to paralyze her host but also to lay eggs inside the unsuspecting creature (who will soon be suffering from a grueling death when wasps burst)

The researchers published a striking image and detailed description of C. crassicaudata along with six other new wasp species, in the journal Zootaxa. C. crassicaudata which is only 9.8 millimeters long, has a somewhat phallic stinger that is about half of its length.

"We find new species all the time, but only a small fraction of them is so exciting," said Ilari Sääksjärvi, entomologist at the University of Turku in Finland and co-author of l & # 39; section.

C. crassicaudata is a type of parasitoid wasp. These wasps lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other insects, eventually killing them. [Biodiversity Abounds: Stunning Photos of the Amazon]

The sting is also called an ovipositor because the wasp uses the body part to place its eggs in the body of a host. "Ovipositors of parasitoid wasps are usually long," Sääksjärvi told Live Science in an email. "But this species differs from the others because the ovipositor is also very wide, a little thickened apically and strongly."

It might seem difficult to catch one of these wasps with needles without being stung, but Sääksjärvi said that parasitoid wasps do not hurt too much compared to those of other wasps and bees. And, he says, species with superlong stingers can not usually sting humans because their sting is too fragile.

Although these wasps look scary and their hosts are dying of a cruel and slow death, parasitoid wasps are important for controlling populations. other pests, according to the University of Maryland.

They are also a very diverse group. "We continue to find new species almost every week," said Sääksjärvi. There are so many species that Sääksjärvi stated that he and his colleagues "did not have the time to describe that part of them". So, go ahead and continue to let your imagination run wild on what is hidden in the Amazon

Original article on Live Science