Wednesday, October 11, 2017

New Zealand wasp named after Harry Potter character Lucius Malfoy

The Telegraph

Anative wasp in New Zealand has been named "Lusius malfoyi" to highlight that the insects - like the character in the Harry Potter series - are not all harmful and can be “redeemed”.
Tom Saunders, a researcher at  the University of Auckland, said he wanted to show that the wasp, which he named after the Lucius Malfoy character in the JK Rowling books, is not as evil as its reputation suggests.
“I used the name Lusius malfoyi because Malfoy is a character in the books with a bad reputation who is ultimately redeemed and I’m trying to redeem the reputation of our native wasps,” said Mr Saunders.
Despite the insect’s fearsome reputation, New Zealand’s 3,000 species of native parasitoid wasps  do not sting and do not live in colonies.
In the Harry Potter books, Lucius Malfoy, the father of Draco Malfoy, is portrayed as a villain but eventually abandons the evil Dark Lord, Voldemort.
Mr Saunders noted that the newly-described wasp does have some unsavoury qualities. Its “gruesome” reproductive technique involves injecting eggs into the body of a caterpillar, which slowly dies as the larvae feeds inside the host’s body.
New Zealand is believed to be losing some of its native wasp species, which can help to control pests. Mr Saunders hopes his research will assist with introducing a parasitoid wasp to control the brown marmorated stink bug. “The stink bug has recently been classified as a top environmental threat by the ministry for primary industries and real effort is being made to keep it out of the country,” he said. “Where it has spread, in places like Europe and North America, it is causing real destruction and economic cost.” An article on the new species of Lusius wasp has been published in the journal New Zealand Entomologist.

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