14 DAY TRIAL // A wasp species that has only recently been discovered by researchers studying biodiversity in China's Gutianshan National Nature Reserve might just be the world's wackiest creature, at least as far as architectural preferences are concerned.
This newly discovered insect, now known as Deuteragenia ossarium, likes to use ant corpses as a security system when building a nest for itself and its future bundles of creepiness, Live Science informs.
Michael Staab with the University of Freiburg in Germany says nests built by Deuteragenia ossarium are equipped with one extra cell that serves as a home for dead ants and that seals the entrance to the main chamber.
This is yet to be confirmed, but the University of Freiburg researcher and his colleagues believe the dead ends serve to camouflage the smell of the young Deuteragenia ossarium, thus keeping predators at bay.
Based on the condition of the ants found in this extra cell sealing the entrance to the wasp's nest, specialists believe that Deuteragenia ossarium actively goes hunting for such insects and does not settle for using corpses it chances to find lying around.
In a paper published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE this past July 2, the researchers who discovered this new wasp species in China's Gutianshan National Nature Reserve argue that its breeding behavior is unique in the animal world.