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Scientists have named a new species of wasp after Uma Thurman’s character from Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies, Beatrix Kiddo.
The wasp, discovered in Thailand, was given the assassin’s name after boffins spotted an uncanny resemblance to Kiddo’s iconic yellow and black jumpsuit from the movies.
Parasitoid wasps of the Cystomastacoides family Braconidae are known for their deadly reproductive habits.
Recent research found that one species, Ampulex compressa, has larvae that secrete antimicrobial substances to keep their host, a cockroach, from spoiling.
Dinocampus coccinellae wasps use ladybugs as incubators because the zombie ladybugs keep predators away from the wasps’ vulnerable larva.
Most of them lay eggs to develop inside other insects and their larvae, killing the respective host or in some cases immobilizing it or causing its sterility.
In a new study, scientists identified two more new species of wasp from the Cystomastacoides genus, in Papua New Guinea. Cystomastacoides asotaphaga, was discovered victimizing a moth caterpillar.
The other, Cystomastacoides nicolepeelerae, was named after fantasy author Nicole Peeler, a favorite novelist of Donald Quicke, a researcher at Imperial College London who led the study.
The findings expand the knowledge of this parasitic wasp genus, which had previously only been know as a single species, Cystomastacoides coxalis, found in mainland China.