The new species of wasp, discovered by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, is one of the world's largest wasps. Kimsey is a noted wasp expert who oversees the Bohart Museum's global collection of seven million insect specimens, including 500,000 wasps.
The jaw-dropping, shiny black wasp appears to be the "Komodo dragon" of the wasp family. It's huge. The male measures about two-and-a-half-inches long, Kimsey discovered the warrior wasp on the Mekongga Mountains in south-eastern Sulawesi on a recent biodiversity expedition funded by a five-year grant from the International Cooperative Biodiversity Group Program.
The insect-eating predator belongs to the genus Dalara and family Crabronidae, and is to be named Garuda, after the national symbol of Indonesia, a powerful mythical warrior that's part human and part eagle, boasts a large wingspan, martial prowess and breakneck speed.
"The first time I saw the wasp I knew it was something really unusual, I'm very familiar with members of the wasp family Crabronidae that it belongs to but had never seen anything like this species of Dalara. We don't know anything about the biology of these wasps. They are only known from Sulawesi."
- Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology
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