Wasps

Botanists have known for years that some plants send distress calls when under attack from herbivorous insects such as aphids, and that these calls…

A species of wasp that lives in Japan seems to have developed a rather unconventional method for warding off attacks.Researchers observed the male of the mason wasp species Anterhynchium gibbifrons using spikes that flank the penis as a weapon – with varying effectiveness – against hungry frogs that think the insect might make a tasty snack."This study," write ecologists Shinji Sugiura and Misaki Tsujii of Kobe University in Japan, "highlights the importance of male genitalia as an anti-predator defense and provides a…

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Males of one wasp species use their genitals as an antipredator defense, mimicking females and jabbing potential attackers with spines mounted on their reproductive organs, a new study has found. While studying the life cycle of mason wasps (Anterhynchium gibbifrons), researcher Misaki Tsujii of Kobe University in Japan felt a “pricking pain” as she handled one of the male insects. At first she thought she’d been stung—a surprise because most males of the insect order Hymenoptera, to which wasps belong, do not have…

the bottle held a thin broth, light brown, with some uncertain chunks of dark matter bobbing on top—a soup, maybe, but one that you’d never want to eat. Once it was poured into a white plastic tray, the chunks resolved into insects. Here were butterflies and moths, the delicate patterns of their wings dimmed after a week or two in ethanol. Here were beetles and bumblebees and lots of burly-looking flies, all heaped together, plus a bevy of large wasps, their stripes and stingers still bright.Michael Sharkey took out a…