Darwin wasp

About Darwin wasp:

• These wasps are parasitoids, meaning their larvae feed and develop on or within the bodies of other arthropods.
• They parasitize many insect groups, especially Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies), Coleoptera (beetles), and other Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps).
• Appearance:
  • These wasps have a body formed of a head, thorax, and abdomen, and six legs.
  • They have a pair of large compound eyes on the side of the head and three ocelli (simple eyes) on the top of the head. 
  • They have longer antennae with more segments, or sections. 
• Adult wasps typically feed on nectar and pollen, and as solitary wasps, only come together to mate.
• Breeding: The females lay their eggs in or on the larvae or pupae (rarely eggs or adults) of the host. To attack wood-boring hosts deep inside woody plant tissues, some ichneumon wasp species actually use their ovipositors as a drill capable of penetrating solid wood.
• Ecological Significance: These tiny winged insects are critical to the ecosystem because they play an important role in controlling the population of crop-damaging pests, such as aphids and caterpillars, without contaminating the environment

New species found in India

• Four new species are recently discovered from India namely
  • Microleptes chiani collected from Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), Tamil Nadu.
  • Microleptes gowrishankari collected from Biligiri Ranganathaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve, in Karnataka.
  • Microleptes sandeshkaduri collected from the Siang valley of Arunachal Pradesh.
  • Microleptes tehriensis is named after its collection site, Tehri in Uttarakhand.

Q1: What is a Parasite?

It is an organism that lives on or in another organism, the host, and gets its food from or at the expense of its host.

News:Researchers discover five new species of the Darwin wasp

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