Two wasps nobody had ever named, hiding in the Amazon's smallest corners

Deep in Amazonia, scientists mapping a little-known group of parasitoid wasps have described two species entirely new to science — one with a finely granulated body, one polished smooth — from specimens collected in Peru and Ecuador. The team also documented the previously unknown males of two known species and untangled a naming mix-up in a third. Parasitoid wasps quietly keep other insect populations in balance, so every newly mapped species sharpens the picture of how the rainforest's smallest machinery fits together.