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Darwin wasp

14-12-2024

09:30 AM

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1 min read
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Overview:

A team of researchers from the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) and their collaborators have discovered five new species of the Darwin wasp subfamily Microleptinae (Hymenoptera:Ichneumonidae) from India and Thailand

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