Darwin wasp

Table of Contents☰

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.