Fearsome Jaws

A newly discovered wasp found in Indonesia has enormous sickle shaped jaws to rival its fearsome sting.The new species has been dubbed Megalara garuda after the Garuda, a part human, part bird legend that is the national symbol for Indonesia. Little is known about the wasps behavior, but based on other wasp species, males may use their giant jaws to hold females during mating. The wasp was simultaneously discovered by researchers Lynn Kimsey of the University of California, Davis and Michael Ohl of the Museum f?r Naturkunde in Berlin, who report their discovery in the journal ZooKeys this week. A specimen of the wasp collected in the 1930s was lurking in the insect collections of the museum, unexamined. At the same time, researchers searching the Indonesia island of Sulawesi found a modern specimen of the same wasp.