Both were trapped in a fragment of amber.
This is a magnificent discovery reported by the journal Historical Biology: that of a flowering plant of an unknown species trapped in amber, right next to a parasitic wasp, which is also part of a new species.
Discovered in the Dominican Republic, this incredible amber – a fossil resin secreted millions of years ago by conifers – hid within it a relatively small female flower, with a long stem.
Scientists were able to establish that this plant actually belonged to the Euphorbiaceae family, which includes 300 different genera, of which no fossil had ever been listed. The flower, whose new species has been named Plukenetia minima, is estimated to be 30 million years old.
The flower, the wasp and the larva
The discovery might have stopped there, it would already have been extraordinary. But the scientists had much more to put in their mouths in this fragment of amber. Right next to this unknown flower were indeed a wasp and a developing fly larva, reports Science Alert. From 3 in 1.
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The funny parasitic wasp, named Hambletonia dominicana, had already been studied in 2020. It belongs to the Encyrtidae family, which is particularly formidable and aggressive towards a whole range of insects.
Better than two insects and a separate flower, amber actually reveals a veritable ecological microcosm. The modern members of the fossilized plant are indeed today pollinated by small wasps, which suggests that the…
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