Showing posts with label parasites. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parasites. Show all posts

Sunday, May 11, 2014

24 new Mummy-Making Wasps in Ecuador




"Some Ecuadorian tribes were famous for making mummified shrunken heads from the remains of their conquered foes. Field work in the cloud forests of Ecuador by Professor Scott Shaw, University of Wyoming, Laramie, and colleagues, has resulted in the discovery of 24 new species of Aleiodes wasps that mummify caterpillars. The research by Eduardo Shimbori, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil, and Scott Shaw, was recently published in the open access journal ZooKeys.
Among the 24 new insect species described by Shimbori and Shaw, several were named after famous people including the comedians and television hosts Jimmy Fallon, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Ellen DeGeneres, as well as the Ecuadorian artist Eduardo Kingman, American poet Robert Frost, and Colombian singer and musician, Shakira."
Read more at http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113143199/new-species-of-mummy-making-wasps-in-ecuador-051014/#AK5VGF0LBShfcwp4.99


I found this interesting because of the rate at which people can discover and classify new insects!

Allana Williams


Monday, April 18, 2011

insects, parasites, and Radiolab...

Hey guys,
So here's a podcast I found in the Radiolab archives that has some cool insect related info. It's pretty long (an hour long) but super entertaining. The whole thing isn't about insects, the topic is parasites in general, but here are some bookmarks...


Around 4:50 they talk about caterpillars and cockroaches infected with parasitic wasps
Around 13:00 they talk about parasitic nematodes who infect ants to spread their seed

There are also a bunch of other weird little topics covered like how the hookworm is responasble for the invention of the outhouse.

Anyway, enjoy!
-Marisa

p.s. Check out ANY of the episodes on this site. They are all awesome.