- Science
- Not Exactly Rocket Science
Newly Discovered Wasp Plugs Nest With Cork of Ant Corpses
Here’s a great home security tip from nature: if you don’t want people breaking into your house, stuff your hallway with corpses. Ideally, use the corpses of dangerous and foul-smelling people.
For specific hints, you need to travel to the forests of China. There, Michael Staab from the University of Freiburg has discovered a new species of wasp that protects its young by stuffing the entrance to its nests with ant cadavers. The practice reminded him of European ossuaries—buildings like the amazing Sedlec Ossuary that are piled high and deep with human skeletons. In honour of these sites, Staab named the insect Deuteragenia ossarium. It’s the bone-house wasp.
Staab discovered the creature as part of a huge project to study