Washington: A tiny new species of wasp which kills an invasive pest that threatens several crops in India has been named after British actor and musician Idris Elba, researchers say.
The parasitic wasp was recently discovered in Guanajuato, Mexico, where it was found to parasitise the eggs of an invasive stink bug, known as the bagrada bug, which is a major pest of cruciferous vegetables.
Researchers, including those from Colegio de Postgraduados in Mexico, suggest that the species might prove to be a Heimdall-like “protector” for many crops.
Idris Elba played the character Heimdall in a number of Marvel movies including Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War. Heimdall’s namesake, Heimdallr, is a Norse deity believed to be the sole protector of the bridge linking the human world and the realm of the gods.
The genus Idris was described in 1856 and now contains over 300 species and many more species are still undescribed, according to the study published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.
Species of Idris were previously known to only parasitise spider eggs. Therefore, it was unexpected when specimens of Idris were found to emerge from eggs of the bagrada bug by Refugio Lomeli-Flores and his team in Guanajuato.
—PTI
