It might be dead and encased in a chunk of amber ( RIP ) , but there ’s a new species of micro - wasp in Ithiel Town and it ’s got some pretty queer antenna . The bantam white Anglo-Saxon Protestant was discovered preserve in a piece of gold from Myanmar and is thought to be from the mid - Cretaceous period , around 100 million years ago .
research worker have deemed it a phallus of an entirely new genus and metal money – Caradiophyodus saradae , after the Greek Logos for head ( kara ) and cleft ( diaphyodus ) , and scientist Sarada Krishnan .
Measuring 1.3 millimeters ( 0.05 inches ) , it go to a now - extinct family of micro - white Anglo-Saxon Protestant . However , a meaning proportion of its length is assume up by mysterious , bulging structures at the end of its antennae , something that is n’t see in any other micro - wasps today .
This image makes the antennae and mysterious structures look like a golden pair of lungs.Image credit: George Poinar Jr.
“ We could discover no fossil or extant worm with such antennal social organization , ” tell George Poinar , pass source of the study describing the louse , in astatement . Its tiny length " as well as its 15 - segment antennae , a deep cleft in the center of its chief and characters of the wing distinguish it from all other micro - wasps . ”
The research worker are n’t entirely trusted how the wasp could even fly with the odd consistence feature either . “ The alone , miniature cloudlike structures stuck to the antennae must have certainly been an irritation to this tiny leech , ” theorize Poinar . In other quarrel , they were perchance a monolithic pain in the butt .
Without any other insects with similar complex body part to compare them to , Poinar and fellow author Fernando Vega could only make train guesses as to the purpose of the unusual feature .
“ They could be petite plant seeds , plant secretions or eggs from a host the wasp was parasitizing , ” Poinar hypothesize . “ There is a dependable possible action the micro - wasp was parasitizing ordered series insects since there is a male scale worm embedded in the same art object of amber . ”
Many micro - wasps that live today are parasitic – the somewhat inaptly named fairyflies include the smallest known dirt ball in the world , and theylay their eggsin the bodies of other insects .
Although the function of the strange structure stay to be uncover , their find is valuable in itself , as Poinar reason :
“ Whatever they are , discover these is one of the things that makes our oeuvre so interesting , and challenging : line up dominant , unequalled features on extinct organism . ”
The study is published in the journalLife .
