Victoria Allen, Science Editor, Daily Mail
00:01 December 28, 2023, 00:20 Updated December 28, 2023
- 815 new species named, of which over 600 are new wasp species
- This list also includes the largest penguin ever discovered, Kumimanu foradisei
The “terrifying” wasp, which hatches inside and exits other insects, is one of a record 815 new species discovered by the Natural History Museum this year.
Scientists also discovered the largest penguin ever known to exist, a fearsome armored dinosaur and a new native species of moth discovered in Ealing. western australia.
LondonThe Natural History Museum has been counting the number of new species described each year since 2018, with the previous record at 815 species.
It contains a total of 619 new species of wasp, 14 of which have been given the group name ‘Dalek’, after the Doctor Who villain.
That’s because not only are they short, sturdy, and metallic in color, but they also have a murderous lifestyle.
Dr Gavin Broad, the Natural History Museum’s resident hornet expert, said of the Dalek hornet: “These wasps lay their eggs inside insects called plant lice, which is a pretty scary thing to do, so it’s a bit sci-fi.”
“Once the eggs hatch, the baby wasps eat the lice from the inside and move out to secure a food supply of fresh meat.
“This shows how clever wasps are. Other parasitic wasps that exploit insects in this way can paralyze their hosts or manipulate spiders to create different nests that are more beneficial to the wasps. You can even use mind control to do so.”
When the Natural History Museum revealed 351 new species last year, the majority of the new discoveries were wasps.
In 2022, 85 new species of wasps were discovered, including some that could be useful as biological control agents in agriculture.
The tiny, feathery-winged parasitic wasp is one of the smallest insects ever discovered and lives on the eggs of the crop-damaging thrips.
New species discovered in 2023 include the largest penguin ever known to exist, Kumimanu fordysei, which weighs about the same as a gorilla, estimated at 330 pounds (150 kg). )there were.
This giant penguin, which roamed New Zealand’s oceans and coasts more than 50 million years ago, was three times heavier than the modern emperor penguin.
Meanwhile, an amateur hobbyist discovered a small brown moth in an insect trap in a park in Ealing last month, which turned out to be a new species from Western Australia that has also established itself in parts of west London.
The insect was named Tachistra mulliganae after moth enthusiast Barbara Mulligan, who discovered it.
The 619 new species of hornets, including the tiny Dalek hornet, which measures less than 2 millimeters in length, are largely the result of a research trip to Costa Rica that discovered more than 550 new species of hornets.
Experts say the wasps are essential for killing pests such as mealybugs, which could otherwise destroy vital food supplies like Africa’s cassava crops.
Fifty-eight new beetle species have been named, including the bright green and pink-orange darkling beetle from China and Laos, and four new long-nosed weevils from South Africa.
Other insects include six Australian stick insects (one of which was first spotted on the side of a trash can) and nine new species of bristles (including two that eat bones).
There are 24 new species of frogs, 20 of which are small species from Madagascar’s forests.
This includes the Tanzanian reed frog Hyperorius ukagruensis, known as the “voiceless” frog because it is one of the few frogs that does not make a sound to other frogs.
This year also features an ancient toothed bird called Janavis finaridens that was flying around at the time an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, and a type of Mauritius ground thrush that likely went extinct in the 1600s after global warming. ), four new fossil bird species have been discovered. Introducing the black rat.
There’s a new dinosaur with armor made of blade-like spikes. This is the first armored dinosaur to be named on the Isle of Wight in 142 years.
It was also discovered infecting the roots of plants 400 million years ago, making it the oldest pathogen ever discovered and known as Potteromyces asteroid, named after Peter Rabbit author and fungi enthusiast Beatrix Potter. It was named Xylicola.
There were also 14 new meteorites described by museum scientists.
The DNA fingerprint of a new species discovered in the UK will be sequenced and uploaded to a large database as part of the Darwin Tree of Life project.