Scientists have unearthed a new species of wasp in the Amazon – and it's rather terrifying. The alien-looking parasitic creature came to light when a team at Utah State University were researching Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve in Peru. The wasp, known as Capitojoppa amazonica, has a giant almond-shaped head and is known to latch on to prey before sucking its blood and then eating it from the inside. It does so by laying eggs in its victims including caterpillars, beetles and spiders. The study’s lead author, biologist Brandon Claridge called the practice a "solitary endoparasitoid". "Once the host is located and mounted, the female will frantically stroke it with her antennae," Claridge told Live Science in an email. "If acceptable, the female will deposit a single egg inside the host by piercing it with her ovipositor (a tube-like, egg-laying organ)." He went on to explain that in some instances, "females will even stab the host with the ovipositor and feed without laying an egg as it helps with gaining nutrients for egg maturation." This isn't the first horrifying discovery, with researchers recently finding a new species of tarantula in Thailand that is characterised with illuminous blue legs. The spider is one of the rarest in the world, with Dr Narin Chomphuphuang explaining how it lurks in hollow trees. "The difficulty of catching an electric-blue tarantula lies in the need to climb a tree and lure it out of a complex of hollows," he explained. "During our expedition, we walked in the evening and at night during low tide, managing to collect only two of them." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

South Africa’s near fourfold increase in rooftop solar power generation capacity in the year to March has reduced

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 10, 2023--

By Stephen Nellis UltraSense Systems, a Silicon Valley startup that makes a chip that can replace mechanical buttons,

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Cutting-edge plans to use drones as first responders to police emergencies will be trialled in Norfolk next year. If testing is successful, the devices would be stationed on buildings and operated remotely to be sent first to scenes to give police early information. Initial trials, under a scheme dubbed Project Eagle X, will take place in Norfolk, which has limited access to the helicopters flown by the National Police Air Service because they are stationed so far away. Further tests will also take place in Thames Valley Police and Hampshire. It can tell you straight away whether you're talking about a major road traffic collision that requires three fire engines and four ambulances, or whether it's a minor prang and someone's getting overexcited Neil Sexton, National Police Chiefs' Council Police in England and Wales are working with officers in the US as similar trials have taken place in San Diego. The drones as first responders (DFR) devices are also set to be trialled in Belgium and the Netherlands. Neil Sexton, who advises the National Police Chiefs’ Council on the use of drones, said: “DFR is a drone that sits autonomously on a roof somewhere in a city and it’s in a box, it’s protected. “From a control station that receives a 999 call it can be launched completely remotely, flying overhead an incident to gain situational awareness that will be fed back not just to that control station or control room, but also to the first responders who are about to arrive on the ground.” The hope is the drone would give more accurate information on the potential scale of an incident that a potentially shocked member of the public who has called 999, and get there more quickly than a helicopter. “The ability to get a remote aircraft overhead an incident that is still developing to gain a better situational awareness [is] much improved over phone calls from members of the public who are under stress,” Mr Sexton said. “Sitting overhead, it can tell you straight away whether you’re talking about a major road traffic collision that requires three fire engines and four ambulances, or whether it’s a minor prang and someone’s getting overexcited.” Currently, police forces in England and Wales use about 400 drones that cannot be flown out of the operator’s line of sight. Plans are in place to amend those rules to allow police operators to do so, with initial trials taking place in areas with closed-off airspace next year. Forces are also planning much wider use of retrospective facial recognition technology, with chiefs proposing to double its use by May. The biometric software, hailed as significant a step forward for policing as DNA analysis, is used to compare images from sources such as CCTV with forces’ databases of custody shots. Britain’s largest police force the Metropolitan Police has already said it will use the software to catch prolific shoplifters caught on CCTV. South Wales Police, one of the forces to spearhead use of live and retrospective facial recognition, is also piloting software that can be used by officers on their mobile phones. Around 50 officers currently have access to an app on their phones that allows them to take a photo of a suspect and compare it to the force’s mugshot database. If the test is successful, the system could be rolled out across England and Wales. Read More Apple to adopt system to improve texting between iPhones and Android devices ICO seeks permission to appeal against Clearview AI tribunal ruling Users of iPhones can now check bank balance from Wallet app VR tool aims to help rail passengers spot and safely tackle sexual harassment Ring to preview security features with abuse charity to boost safety TikTok launches feature to save songs to music apps like Spotify

NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 22, 2023--

(Corrects to add source in headline) (Reuters) -TikTok is planning to launch in early August an e-commerce platform to sell

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Alphabet Inc.’s Google will face a scaled-down antitrust suit over its search business after a federal judge threw

Ishpreet Singh Chadha was a top shooter competitor, but his real dream was a career on the green baize.

After years of bad press and scandal, Mark Zuckerberg is seeing his reputation spruced up in the fickle world of tech, largely thanks to the...