Assassins specialize in hunting maggots

Experts have discovered the unprecedented points of a maggot insect in Central and South America.

Scientists hold very little information about a tropical parasitic insect belonging to the subfamily orthocentrinae, like wasps, in addition to their horrible lifestyle. They lay single eggs into the maggots, and when the pupa grows, it eats the host body from the inside.

Specialized insects eat maggots

Now, experts from the Natural Museum in London have discovered a diverse population of this subfamily in Central and South America, according to a report published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. .

Scientists examined 1,549 orthocentrinae collected in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest.

From this group, they identified at least 177 different species, more than the 14 previously known species in the region, and more than 151 species in North America.

These parasitic insects, which are only a few millimeters long, were thought to have developed only in temperate climates, but new research has shown the opposite.

'If we look at the number of these insects in the forests, they must play an important role in the complex cycle, according to which dead trees are decomposed,' said Gavin Broad.

He explained fungi treat wood as well as leaves and other organic crumbs. Flies eat mushrooms and insects of the family orthocentrine eat flies. This is a pyramid-like mechanism like the waste processing machine of the forest.