An ultra-thin surgical tool designed with inspiration from the egg-laying organ of parasitic wasps could be used to help operate on tumours and blood clots. Researchers from the Netherlands based their prototype on the ovipositor -- a long needle-like tube that protrudes from the rear of some wasps. The parasitic insects use their ovipositor to inject eggs into the bodies, eggs and boreholes of its hosts. The organ can also drill through wood and paralyse. The surgical device, however, will be less gruesome -- instead using the same segmented design to extract tissue samples during minimally invasive surgery.

Scientists have discovered two species of wasps which grow up to four inches (10cm) long and lay their eggs inside other insects. The wasps were found in the jungle in Uganda's Kibale National Park and are among some of the only ones of their type ever discovered. Named Epirhyssa quagga and Epirhyssa johanna, the creatures are part of the rhyssine family, which cannot sting and are harmless to humans. But they are less harmless in their own habitat – their larvae develop inside the offspring of beetles and other wasps and eat them from the inside out. Discoveries of these disconcertingly large wasps are generally rare, but scientists this time found large numbers of both males and females of new types in the forest.

Chinese researchers have found two previously unknown species of parasitic wasps in a swarm hovering 11,000 feet (3,400m) above the sea in Tibet. The two species look very similar to each other because they belonged to the same genus (Microplitis), according to the researchers. Specimens of the wasps were kept in the Institute of Beneficial Insects at the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) in China after being collected in 2013. Chinese researchers have found two previously unknown species of parasitic wasps in a swarm hovering 11,000 feet (3,400m) above the sea in Tibet. The newly described wasps have been named Microplitis paizhensis and Microplitis bomiensis, after where they were found in Tibet.

Scientists have discovered a nightmare-inducing species of wasp in the Amazonian rainforest. The new species is equipped with a massive stinger that'looks like a fierce weapon' – and, it uses this to deliver powerful venom that paralyzes its victims, before laying eggs inside the body. Researchers say it can be found throughout the transitional zone between the Andes and the lowland rainforest. The new species is equipped with a massive stinger that'looks like a fierce weapon' – and, it uses this to deliver powerful venom that paralyzes its victims, before laying eggs inside the body In a paper published to the journal Zootaxa, the international team of researchers describes several previously unknown wasp species. But, a species called Clistopyga crassicaudata stands out in particular.