Скачать или смотреть Meet the Gall Wasp Named After a Star Wars Crime Lord | Entomology

Louis Nastasi, who earned his doctorate in entomology earlier this year, led a team of Penn State researchers to discover and name 22 new species of gall wasps. Louis and team combined biological, molecular, and physical data to study these mysterious and tiny wasps. Comparing markers including DNA sequences, the team determined the number of unique gall wasp species, all 22 of which were previously unknown to scientists.

They named each new species of gall wasp based on the shared trait of invading other wasps' territories. For example, Ceroptres promethei is named after the Greek Titan Prometheus, who stole fire from the Olympian gods, and Ceroptres jabbai is named after Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars.

0:00 introduction
0:04 What are gall wasps?
0:35 An entomology mystery requiring advanced imaging and DNA sequencing
1:22 Discovering new gall wasp species
1:56 How many new species were found?
2:25 Naming the new gall wasp species
3:16 At least 100 more unique gall wasps to be studied