this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2023
103 points (97.2% liked)

Damn, that's interesting!

4688 readers
1 users here now

  1. No clickbait
  2. No Racism and Hate speech
  3. No Imgur Gallery Links
  4. No Infographics
  5. Moderator Discretion
  6. Repost Guidelines
  7. No videos over 15 minutes long
  8. No "Photoshopped" posts
  9. Image w/ text posts must be sourced in comments

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
9Q6u7hroWkwW9@lemmy.ml
103
This wasp is half the size of an amoeba and its microscopic brain has a trick up its sleeve.. (blogs.dal.ca)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by FrankLaskey@lemmy.ml to c/damnthatsinteresting@lemmy.ml
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

These wasps are not single-celled organisms though, and their brains alone contain 4600 neurons. For reference, the brain of a honeybee contains ~1 million neurons. Despite their extremely small heads (again, look at that head next to the SINGLE CELLED amoeba) the wasps can still fly, seek out mates, and find thrip eggs to parasitize. So…what? How?

top 5 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] paysrenttobirds@sh.itjust.works 24 points 10 months ago

I love how at the end of the article he describes a truly morbid detail about a completely different insect because

I needed to share the burden of knowing they exist and are out there, waiting.

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 17 points 10 months ago

Answer: "The lifespan of these wasps is only 5 days"

"it's brain cells get rid of their own nucleus and all its stored maintenance information. The neurons already exist, so maintenance is the only task [...] requiring DNA, and they don’t live long enough for that to matter at this point"

"No nucleus or DNA frees up half of a neuron’s volume"

[–] Jack@lemmy.ca 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Anyone know why Megaphragma mymaripenne's genus has "mega" in the name?

"mega-, megalo-: [...] big/great." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commonly_used_taxonomic_affixes#M

[–] young_broccoli@kbin.social 10 points 10 months ago

Because its mega small lol

sorry

[–] Slatlun@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 months ago

Phragma means a divider. My guess is someone was saying these tiny bugs are extremely (mega) separate (phragma) from their relatives.