Rare cuckoo wasp species lays its eggs in other bees hives Dan Avery For Dailymail.com © Provided by Daily Mail MailOnline logo
Cuckoo wasps are the ultimate bad houseguests, hiding their eggs in other insect s nests and then allowing them to hatch and eat their siblings.
Researchers in Norway were able to identify an entirely new cuckoo wasp based on a single specimen.
To infiltrate the homes of unsuspecting wasps, the killer insects mimic their hosts pheromones and to avoid inbreeding, each species of cuckoo wasp chooses a different host.
While the newcomer was visually and genetically almost identical to Chrysis brevitarsis, it spoke a different chemical language, meaning it was an entirely new species
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IMAGE: There are a total of over 2,500 described golden wasp species, with 40 recorded in Norway. view more
Credit: Photo: Arnstein Staverløkk, NINA, CC BY3.
Cuckoo wasps - also called emerald wasps - are some of the most beautiful insects we have, with colourful exteriors that shine like jewels. However, these beauties have also created a lot of headaches. Normally we distinguish insects from each other by their appearance, but cuckoo wasps are so similar to each other that it makes it difficult, says Frode Ødegaard.
Ødegaard is an insect researcher at the NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) University Museum and belongs to the European research group that has now described thia recent contribution to species diversity. The new species is very rare, and is only a single specimen has been found on the Lista peninsula in Agder county in Norway.