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Indonesia Arrests Man for Selling Rhino Horn Via Social Media

A white rhinoceros calf stands next to its mother Nola at Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier July 31, 2024. (Photo by Sylvain THOMAS / AFP)
A white rhinoceros calf stands next to its mother Nola at Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier July 31, 2024. (Photo by Sylvain THOMAS / AFP)
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Indonesia Arrests Man for Selling Rhino Horn Via Social Media

A white rhinoceros calf stands next to its mother Nola at Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier July 31, 2024. (Photo by Sylvain THOMAS / AFP)
A white rhinoceros calf stands next to its mother Nola at Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier July 31, 2024. (Photo by Sylvain THOMAS / AFP)

Indonesian authorities arrested a man trying to sell elephant tusks and the horns of critically endangered rhinos via social media.

The illegal wildlife trade remains rampant in Indonesia, where law enforcement is lax, but the arrested man could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, the environmental ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.

South Sumatra police began an investigation after seeing posts on Facebook earlier this year offering parts of protected wildlife for sale, AFP reported.

A 60-year-old man, identified only by the initials "ZA", was arrested last week during a transaction while trying to sell a rhino horn and a pipe made of an elephant tusk in Palembang, South Sumatra.

Police found seven more rhino horns and at least four elephant tusks at his house.

"It seems like he's very experienced in wildlife trading," the environmental ministry said.

In June police arrested a gang of poachers suspected of killing 26 critically endangered Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon National Park since 2018.

They once numbered in the thousands across Southeast Asia, but have been hard hit by rampant poaching and human encroachment on their habitat, and the environment ministry says there are only around 80 of the beasts left in the wild.

Sumatran rhinos have also been declared critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature or IUCN with fewer than 50 remaining.

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Scientists Uncover Ancient Insect Preserved in Amber that Snatched its Prey

This illustration provided by Xiaoran Zuo in March 2025 depicts an ancient parasitic wasp found in Myanmar that may have seized prey with its Venus flytrap-like back end. (Xiaoran Zuo via AP)
This illustration provided by Xiaoran Zuo in March 2025 depicts an ancient parasitic wasp found in Myanmar that may have seized prey with its Venus flytrap-like back end. (Xiaoran Zuo via AP)
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Scientists Uncover Ancient Insect Preserved in Amber that Snatched its Prey

This illustration provided by Xiaoran Zuo in March 2025 depicts an ancient parasitic wasp found in Myanmar that may have seized prey with its Venus flytrap-like back end. (Xiaoran Zuo via AP)
This illustration provided by Xiaoran Zuo in March 2025 depicts an ancient parasitic wasp found in Myanmar that may have seized prey with its Venus flytrap-like back end. (Xiaoran Zuo via AP)

An ancient wasp may have zipped among the dinosaurs, with a body like a Venus flytrap to seize and snatch its prey, scientists reported Wednesday.
The parasitic wasp's abdomen boasts a set of flappy paddles lined with thin bristles, resembling “a small bear trap attached to the end of it,” said study co-author Lars Vilhelmsen from the Natural History Museum of Denmark.
Scientists uncovered over a dozen female wasps preserved in 99-million-year-old amber from the Kachin region in northern Myanmar, The Associated Press reported. The wasp’s flaps and teeth-like hairs resemble the structure of the carnivorous Venus flytrap plant, which snaps shut to digest unsuspecting insects. But the design of the wasp's getup made scientists think its trap was designed to cushion, not crush.
Instead, researchers suggested the flytrap-like structure was used to hold a wriggly insect still while the wasp laid an egg, depositing a baby wasp to feed on and drain its new host.
It's a playbook adapted by many parasitic wasps, including modern-day cuckoo and bethylid wasps, to exploit insects. But no known wasp or any other insect does so with bizarre flaps quite like this one.
“I've seen a lot of strange insects, but this has to be one of the most peculiar-looking ones I've seen in a while,” said entomologist Lynn Kimsey from the University of California, Davis, who was not involved with the research.
Scientists named the new wasp Sirenobethylus charybdis, partly for the sea monster from Greek mythology that stirred up wild whirlpools by swallowing and expelling water.
The new study was published in the journal BMC Biology and included researchers from Capital Normal University and the Beijing Xiachong Amber Museum in China.
It's unclear when the wasp went extinct. Studying unusual insects like this one can help scientists understand what insects are capable of and how different they can be.
“We tend to think that the cool things are only found today," said Gabriel Melo, a wasp expert at the Federal University of Paraná in Brazil, who had no role in the study. "But when we have this opportunity, we see that many really exceptional, odd things already happened.”