Scientists discover new parasitic wasps invading the United States

There are all kinds of cruel parasites, and others are uncovered all the time. Scientists have recently found several invasive species of parasitic wasps that have now landed in the United States

Researchers from the University of Binghamton and Iowa University have discovered. For the first time, they detected the presence of two species of loungedly related parasitic wasps only in Europe. Do not be too afraid, however: these wasps infest only the other wasps.

A world of wasp-manger

The researchers were interested in studying oak wasps. These wasps invade and lay their eggs inside oaks. The egg laying process also generates the growth of the holder gall – which grow from the plant (in human terms, these growths are like warts). The egg matures inside the gall, using it for food and protection.

Sometimes, however, the parasites of nature can have their own parasites, the oak wasps included. These Turducken parasites are called hyperparasites, and many are parasitic wasps. These wasps also tend to be parasitoids or parasites who ultimately kill their host. The parasitic oak wasps, in particular, will pierce the gall and launch their own eggs, which will then devour the existing larvae inside.

The research team wanted to better understand the diversity of oak wasps and their parasites. They therefore collected samples of oak galls on the two coasts of the United States, British Columbia, Canada, Florida. They also raised the parasitoid wasps found inside these galls in their laboratories.

All in all, they have identified more than 100 distinct species of parasitic Wales. But two of these species had never been identified in the United States so far; In addition, they were found at the opposite ends of North America.

The new wasps technically belong to the same species, Botanomyia dorsalis. But the previous genetic data in Europe have suggested that there are at least two distinct subsets of these wasps, say the researchers sufficiently distinct for them to be considered as different species. One of these groups, B. Dorsalis Sp. 1, was only found in New York, while the other, B. Dorsalis Sp. 2, was found in several places along the west coast.

The results of the team were published earlier in July in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research (Hymenoptera being the big order of insects which includes wasps).

Mysteries to solve

In science, a discovery often generates many more questions, and this is also the case here.

To start, we do not know exactly how the wasps arrived here. It is possible that they arrived on species of non -native oaks, some of which were brought for the first time to North America from the 17th century. But as adult wasps can live for almost a month, they may have just reached a lap on a plane, researchers speculate.

The West Coast wasps were also very genetically similar, which probably means that only a small population arrived in the region at the start. Conversely, the wasps of the east coast were more diverse, so it is possible that more than one introduction occurred.

Another important question is whether these wasps could constitute a serious threat to the health of the population of native oak wasps that they infest or for the global ecosystems they now call.

“We have found that they could parasitize several species of oak wasps and that they can spread, since we know that the West population has probably spread through regions and host species of a small localized introduction,” said study author Kirsten Prior, biologist in charge of the Global Natural Center in Binghamton, in a statement published by the University. “They could affect populations of indigenous species of the wasp of galls or other native parasites of oak wasps.”

What is clear is that scientists like Prior and his team have started to scratch the surface of the parasitic world. Few research groups are able to reliably follow the distribution and movement of these types of parasitic wasps, underline the authors, it is therefore likely that there are many new and invasive species that await to be discovered. Oh Joy.