Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday present is… a parasitic wasp
Famous British naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough turns 100 on May 8, and a team of researchers have prepared a special gift: a whole new genus of wasp named in his honor.
Meet Attenboroughnculus taua small parasitic wasp discovered in Chile. The specimen is 0.14 inches long and bears a T-shaped mark on its abdomen that inspired the species name, “tau.” The insect was collected in the Chilean province of Valdivia in 1983, and it took more than four decades for anyone to officially recognize it as something new.
“We hope to inspire scientists around the world to re-examine their collections to see if there is something small that could contribute to our collective understanding and therefore the future of our natural world,” Jennifer Pullar, head of science communications at the Natural History Museum in London, said in a statement.
It was volunteer Augustijn De Ketelaere, a graduate student at Ghent University in Belgium, who noticed the insect’s unexpected features while the team was examining the museum’s ichneumonid collections. Attenboroughnculus tau has a unique combination of anatomical features that differentiate it from already established genera: a strongly curved abdominal segment, tooth-like structures on the ovipositor (which they use to lay eggs), and distinctive wing and leg morphology.
If you think Attenborough will be offended by the unsavory nature of the bug named in his honor, think again. Parasitoid wasps have appeared in his documentaries, such as the BBC nature documentary series. The trials of lifein which he nicknamed them the “bodysnatcher wasp”.
“David Attenborough has showcased Chile’s diverse and extreme landscapes in several documentaries, emphasizing the unique environmental challenges and ecological resilience of the country’s species,” write De Ketelaere, Pullar and lead author Gavin Broad, senior curator of insects at the museum, in a recent article. Natural History Journal study. “He used his work to reveal the intimate, the invisible or the overlooked in nature. This resonates in the discovery of this species in an unsorted drawer within the collections of the Natural History Museum in London.”
This is not the first time Attenborough has been honored by taxonomists. In fact, more than 50 species are named after man, including the carnivorous plant. Nepenthes attenboroughii.
Happy birthday Sir David Attenborough!
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