Horntail wasp crowned 2025's 'Insect of the Year' in Europe
The turn of the year is a time when various types of polls are announced. While choosing the person or athlete of the year might not be surprising anymore, selecting an insect of the year could indeed surprise many. Which insect has received this esteemed title this year? The decision is already made.
Starting in 1999, in German-speaking countries, there has been a special poll to select the insect of the year. Since 2009, it has been a joint decision by Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. According to Senkenberg, this year's choice is the horntail wasp, which is highly valued by foresters.
The horntail wasp is a relatively inconspicuous insect. Adult specimens are only about 2.5 to 3 cm long but demonstrate that even small creatures can accomplish a lot. The insect of the year 2025 helps foresters combat the pest known as the wood wasp. This insect, which bears some resemblance to a hornet, lays eggs in both live and freshly cut trees, leading to tree death. It is mainly for the latter reason that the wood wasp is considered the most significant pest of processed wood.
This is where the horntail wasp comes to the rescue. The female of this species can expertly locate wood wasp larvae under the bark. Once she discovers them, she penetrates the bark and deposits her eggs in the larvae. The developing horntail wasp parasitizes the wood wasp larva, ultimately killing it. Although this may sound rather grim, foresters stress that it helps maintain ecological balance.
Surprisingly, the horntail wasp recognises trees attacked by wood wasps through smell. It does not detect the scent of the wasp larva itself but rather the fungi brought by the wood wasp that decompose the wood, such as the brown felted layer fungus, which wood wasp larvae use to digest wood, said Thomas Schmitt from the Senckenberg German Entomological Institute in Müncheberg, as reported by the portal wissenschaft.de.
The horntail helps in the fight against wood wasps
Due to their ability to eliminate wood wasps, which damage trees, South America, New Zealand, and Australia have employed horntails to combat the highly invasive pine wood wasp.
In this way, the "Insect of the Year 2025" supports forestry, reduces the need for human intervention and chemical use, and thus can promote biodiversity in the long term, emphasises Katrin Vohland from the Museum of Natural History in Vienna, as reported by wissenschaft.de.
