Overview
- Researchers Corentin Jouault, Di‑Ying Huang and Celso O. Azevedo formally described and named the species Gwesped piastrii, a decision reported widely on Thursday.
- The insect lived in the mid‑Cretaceous about 98 million years ago and was preserved in Burmese (Kachin) amber from northern Myanmar.
- The female specimen is tiny and encased in a rectangular amber piece roughly 10 × 8 × 2 mm, and it is catalogued at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology in China.
- Taxonomically the new species is placed in the genus Gwesped and differs from its closest relative by a higher number of flagellomeres and distinctive forewing venation.
- Media coverage notes mixed accounts of Piastri’s response with some outlets reporting a light‑hearted social post and others saying he had not commented, while scientists say the name honours both his racing record and the amber’s papaya‑orange hue.