An insect previously unknown to science has been uncovered in a Top End national park. Two young wildlife photographers found the new variety of ghost wasp near a popular swimming hole – in what one leading wasp expert is calling a ‘mind blowing’ discovery.
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00:00As dusk approaches at Leyland, Edith Falls, about two hours south of Darwin, Lucina and Nick are looking for boats.
00:09Oh, there's some trapped around here, see this?
00:11Oh really?
00:12Yeah.
00:13So the subtropics, all the savannas up here are just amazing.
00:16It's one of the most extensive and intact ecosystems actually in the entire world.
00:20It was on a recent trip here that the pair made a groundbreaking find.
00:24Most people assume that we already know everything about the biodiversity and the natural world around us,
00:28but it couldn't be further from the truth.
00:31This is what they found, a member of the Gasteruption genus of wasps,
00:35sometimes called ghost wasps for their zigzag hovering.
00:38Such an elegant looking wasp.
00:40So pretty.
00:41They've worked with Darwin traditional owners to come up with a name.
00:45It's called the Mambodimal wasp.
00:47They sent samples to a leading expert on native Australian wasps.
00:51As soon as I saw it, I knew it was something undescribed, something new.
00:55It's really distinctive compared to the rest of the Australian species
00:59and it just blew my mind as soon as I saw it.
01:02The wasp parasitises a native Australian bee by laying eggs in the bee's nest.
01:08Dr Parslow says the find will shed new light on these unique host relationships.
01:14It helps us begin to understand how these groups can occur together but also how they've evolved.
01:20It's good to have species out there on the ledger so that we know what has been affected,
01:24what are we losing, so we can value it and make better decisions going forward.
01:29They're taking their discovery on the road.
01:32I wake up, I think about bugs, I go back to sleep, I dream about bugs.
01:35Hoping their fixation will inspire the next citizen scientists.
01:40These kids have so much biodiversity at their front doorstep just waiting to be discovered.
01:45A hidden world ready to explore.
01:48Oh very good, you found a wasp!