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#parasitoids

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Stefan F. Wirth

#Cuckoowasps (#Chrysididae) always have a close relationship with other insects, mostly other #Hymenoptera, they can be brood parisites, which kill the host larva but mostly feeding their #foodsupply. They can also be #parasitoids that feed on older larvae or pupae. I previously identified the species shown as #Hedychrum #rutilans, but it may be H. #gerstaeckeri, the #hosts would then be: #Cerceris rybyensis and C. ruficornis. #biodiversity
© #StefanFWirth #Berlin 2020, new edit & text 2025

Public
Albert Cardona

@jencmars @futurebird According to an entomology paper, there are more parasitoid wasp species than all other insect and spider species combined, because for each there is a specialist parasitoid wasp plus it’s also targeted by a more generalist one. And some wasps are parasitoids of other wasps.

Haldane’s famous “fondness for beetles” ought to have been for wasps, but alas, their flight season is often short and the alates aren’t all that colorful, and their young lay hidden inside other insects for months – so 19th century entomologists collected beetles, butterflies and moths instead.
#entomology #parasitoids

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Albert Cardona

Ichneumonid wasp ovipositing inside an aphid.

Low-light conditions, a bit blurred. Was fascinating to see, as it iterated over multiple target apids and stabbed them all. Aphids didn't even attempt to run. Interestingly, only chose small aphids, even a very small one (seen in this photo at the lower left, near the posterior tip of the wing of the wasp).

inaturalist.org/observations/2

#Hymenoptera#apids#wasplove
Public
Soh Kam Yung

"The insect world is full of species of parasitic wasps that spend their infancy eating other insects alive. And for reasons that scientists don’t fully understand, they have repeatedly adopted and tamed wild, disease-causing viruses and turned them into biological weapons. Half a dozen examples already are described, and new research hints at many more."

knowablemagazine.org/content/a

#Nature#Biology#Wasps
Replied in thread
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Albert Cardona

@johncarlosbaez

Given that pretty much all insect species, and beyond into spiders and more, are attacked by parasitoid wasps, and that for most hosts there are both host-specific and generic parasitoid wasp species, it’s been estimated that there are more parasitoid wasps than all other insect species combined. Their usually cryptic larval life stages and often brief adult stages may be behind the severe undercounting.

See:
"Quantifying the unquantifiable: why Hymenoptera, not Coleoptera, is the most speciose animal order", Forbes et al. 2018 doi.org/10.1186/s12898-018-017

BioMed CentralQuantifying the unquantifiable: why Hymenoptera, not Coleoptera, is the most speciose animal order - BMC EcologyBackground We challenge the oft-repeated claim that the beetles (Coleoptera) are the most species-rich order of animals. Instead, we assert that another order of insects, the Hymenoptera, is more speciose, due in large part to the massively diverse but relatively poorly known parasitoid wasps. The idea that the beetles have more species than other orders is primarily based on their respective collection histories and the relative availability of taxonomic resources, which both disfavor parasitoid wasps. Though it is unreasonable to directly compare numbers of described species in each order, the ecology of parasitic wasps—specifically, their intimate interactions with their hosts—allows for estimation of relative richness. Results We present a simple logical model that shows how the specialization of many parasitic wasps on their hosts suggests few scenarios in which there would be more beetle species than parasitic wasp species. We couple this model with an accounting of what we call the “genus-specific parasitoid–host ratio” from four well-studied genera of insect hosts, a metric by which to generate extremely conservative estimates of the average number of parasitic wasp species attacking a given beetle or other insect host species. Conclusions Synthesis of our model with data from real host systems suggests that the Hymenoptera may have 2.5–3.2× more species than the Coleoptera. While there are more described species of beetles than all other animals, the Hymenoptera are almost certainly the larger order.
#wasplove#parasitoids#Hymenoptera
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Albert Cardona

Spring in #Pembroke1347 #UK
A few observations among many, all within about 15 minutes of crouching down by a single flower bush, today.

Lispocephala brachialis fly, in brown-resdish and blue colours.
inaturalist.org/observations/2

Hairy-footed flower bee, Anthophora plumipes. A male, in gorgeous yellowish-orange fur.
inaturalist.org/observations/2

Ichneumonid parasitoid wasp, its antennae as long as its whole body.
inaturalist.org/observations/2

Oxytelus sp. rove beetle, its silky wings unfolded.
inaturalist.org/observations/2

A black rove beetle with its silky wings unfolded, walking on a green leaf. Its septate antennae and mandibles are quite visible.
Standing on a whitish plasticky surface, this elegant fly dresses in browns for the abdomen and blues for the hairy thorax and head, with bright red eyes.
The wasp, standing attentively near the edge of a a pale green leaf, examines the surroundings with its very sensitive long antennae, in search of either a mate – if male – or caterpillars or maggots to impale and entrust with its offspring.
Roundish and furry, this orange ball of hair flutters around seemingly too small blue flowers with white anthers, foraging.
#iNaturalist#Diptera#Hymenoptera
Public
Albert Cardona

X-ray microscopy of fossil parasitoid wasps to study the evolution of echolocation for finding hosts:

"†Kryptovelona carstengroehni gen. et sp. nov. and †Orussus juttagroehnae sp. nov. are the first female members of the parasitoid wasp family Orussidae recorded from Baltic amber. We describe them, including relevant parts of the internal anatomy examined with synchrotron scanning. The fossils display a number of modifications in the antennae and foreleg correlated with the specialized host-detection mechanism, and in the ovipositor apparatus, as well as in the thorax and abdomen for accommodating the internalized ovipositor."

"By comparing the new Baltic amber taxa with †Cretorussus, it is possible to trace the progressive refinement of the echolocation mechanism through reductions in the number of antennomeres and foreleg tarsomeres."

Vilhelmsen et al. 2024
doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zla

OUP AcademicEchoes from the Cretaceous: new fossils shed light on the evolution of host detection and concealed ovipositor apparatus in the parasitoid wasp superfamily Orussoidea (Hymenoptera)Abstract. †Kryptovelona carstengroehni gen. et sp. nov. and †Orussus juttagroehnae sp. nov. are the first female members of the parasitoid wasp family Orussidae
#wasplove#fossil#FossilFriday
Public
Soh Kam Yung

"After eating the heart of the cockroach, the wasp larva started gnawing at its quarry’s trachea, the insect equivalent of lungs. This caused air to leak out of the cockroach’s respiratory system and into its body cavity, air that the wasp larva then eagerly slurped up.

In other words, the emerald jewel wasp both eats the cockroach’s heart out and takes its breath away."

nytimes.com/2023/10/29/science

The New York Times · These Tiny, Beautiful Wasps Eat the Hearts Out of CockroachesBy Jason Bittel
#Cockroaches#Wasps#Parasitoids
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