New species of wasp ‘hidden in plain sight’ discovered by MSU researchers
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Creating a buzz in Nature this week, a Mississippi State biologist’s research has led to the discovery of a new parasitic wasp species with unusual biology in the Eastern U.S., opening doors for future research in fundamental biological processes.
Associate Professor Matthew Ballinger’s article “Drosophila are hosts to the first described parasitoid wasp of adult flies” in the world’s leading science journal highlights the discovery of a new wasp from backyard fly traps, revealing a “spectacular example of undescribed biology hidden in plain sight.”
“All known parasitoid wasps of flies attack and develop inside immature life stages,” he said, “and despite 200 years of research on parasitoid wasps of Drosophila and other flies, we have never come across a species that attacks the adult stage, until now.”
Logan Moore, Ballinger’s Ph.D. student who was the Nature article’s lead author, began the project by collecting infected fruit flies from his backyard in Starkville. The team then used a combination of field collections and public data to show the new species lives across the Eastern U.S. and infects one of the most studied animals in biology, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
