Clistopyga caramba: The Wasp With The Ant-Like Ass!

I just came across a really cool critter on facebook and instantly decided to share it with you guys. Meet Clistopyga caramba, the wasp with the ant-like ass:

Clistopyga caramba, (credit)

One the weirdest examples of mimicry in the animal kingdom, don't you think? Definitely has that "WTF" factor!

The wasp was discovered in 2015 by a team of Finnish researchers from the University of Turku while they were digging through the collections in the The Natural History Museum of the University of San Marcos, Peru. Surprised with its looks they named it after the popular Spanish exclamation “Ay caramba”:

Etymology: The specific name caramba refers to the Spanish exclamation ”¡Ay, caramba!”, used to express astonishment. This word well describes our feelings when we saw this species for the first time.

Interestingly, at first they thought they were looking at a deformed creature or something:

  The metasoma of this species is so unusual and highly modified that when we saw it for the first time, we first thought that it might represent a developmental deformation. However, after studying the specimen carefully and showing it to other entomologists, we are convinced that the only known specimen of C. caramba sp. is not deformed. 

They even noted in their paper how C. caramba is one of the weirdest wasps they have ever seen:

C. caramba  is morphologically among the most bizarre parasitoid wasps ever collected and described. After studying thousands of temperate and tropical ichneumonids we have not seen anything as extreme.  

The species was described from a single female specimen that was initially collected in the  tropical Andean-Amazonian interface in Peru, in the lower Urubamba region. From the search I did, it appears that no other specimen has been collected since and hence the little we know comes from that single specimen.

So, what's the deal with the ant-like ass, or to sound more scientific, with the ant-like metasoma? Well, with only one specimen ever collected we can't really say for sure. But the researchers have proposed two theories based on their experience.

The first theory is that the ant-like ass might scare of certain spider predators that are known to avoid ants:

 Visually-oriented salticid spiders have been shown to avoid ants which often prey on them. 

The other theory is the exact opposite. The ant-like ass might actually attract spider species that the wasp preys on:

 Or could the C. caramba even deceive adult spiders to come closer in order to attack the “ant” formed by the tergites? This would enable the female to rapidly attack and immobilize the preying spider 

And that's pretty much all we know about this weird creature. Hopefully, one day we will come across a whole nest of those guys and learn more about them! With nothing else to say, allow me to close with some close up photos of its' ant-like metasoma:

Posterior metasomal tergites and ovipositor of Clistopyga caramba.  A. lateral view, B. dorsal view, C. latero-dorsal view, D. latero-posterior view. (credit)

See ya tomorrow and steem on!

References

• Clistopyga caramba sp. nov. (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae; Pimplinae), an astonishing example of mimicry in spider-attacking parasitoid wasps

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