Scientists discovered how the velvet ant got its white fluf

[FfFfFfFF 58,382]

The creosote fruit and the female D. gloriosa are near perfect doppelgängers. So entomologists long assumed the wasps had evolved their white tufts to camouflage themselves as fallen creosote fruits. The resemblance was so obvious that for the longest time no one ever questioned it. 

However, ten years ago, Dr. Wilson, a biologist at Utah State University, was at work when he found himself entranced by the white and fluffy thistle-downs — the Bichons Frises of wasps.  “I had to know,” Dr. Wilson said. “Why was this wasp white?”

A decade later, Dr. Wilson’s team thinks they have solved the conundrum. The wasp’s coloration may have emerged as a strategy to stay cool on scalding hot sand, according to a study published Wednesday in Biology Letters.

The first clue was the wasp’s color. Dr. Wilson’s lab studies Müllerian mimicry, a defense mechanism whereby different species develop similar traits, with the result that predators learn to avoid the whole group. The thistledown belongs to a mimicry ring of whitish and fuzzy velvet ants, many of which resemble the creosote fruit, at least to the human eye. When the researchers measured the spectral reflectance of the wasps and the fruit, the two reflected different amounts of UV light, meaning they would look distinct from one another in the eyes of, say, a bumblebee.

As the team examined the velvet ant’s phylogenetic history, they found that the wasps evolved their white fuzz around the same time as deserts formed in the southwest, further supporting their hypothesis. “If you’re white and fluffy, you won’t get cooked in the sun,” Dr. Wilson said.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/science/white-fluffy-ant-wasp.html

[elijahfan 27,499]

I think it's the first time I've ever found an insect cute

[MaryJaneHolland 77,348]

No thanks, looks like a mini urchin  

[MJHolland 12,725]

this is cute but can we get a rona vaccine now, scientists?!  

[Seeka 12,372]

I want 4000 plushies of them. 

[Seeka 12,372]

I want 4000 plushies of them. 

[Doot 2]

[Ronk 14,930]

24 minutes ago, Doot said:

Stomp it fat.  That'll learn it.

 

Jk, it's cute actually.