Tag: wasp

Five New Wasp Species Discovered In Cyprus, Including One Named After Aphrodite

New research expands the knowledge on chalcid wasps in Cyprus, with five new species described from the island. One was named after the Greek goddess Aphrodite.

Scientists have described five new species of parasitoid wasp from Cyprus, more than doubling the number of chalcid wasps known to be found nowhere else on the island. The wasps, all belonging to the family Pteromalidae, are small insects that play an important role as natural pest controllers, yet remain poorly studied across much of Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.

The research, carried out by Evangelos Koutsoukos and Mircea-Dan Mitroiu and published in the open-access journal ZooKeys, was part of a wider project funded by the UK Government’s Darwin Plus initiative. The project, titled “Species richness and biological invasions of Chalcid wasps in Akrotiri Peninsula”, was administered by the Enalia Physis Environmental Research Centre and supervised by Dr Angeliki Martinou, with support from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, the University of Leeds, and Alexandru Ioan Cuza University.

“Before the start of this study, our knowledge regarding the chalcid wasp fauna of the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area (SBA) and the rest of the island of Cyprus was extremely limited,” said Koutsoukos.

Chalcid wasps comprise a hyperdiverse group of insects that serve as biological controllers both in natural and manmade ecosystems, and as such it is crucial to enrich our knowledge, towards understanding their true extend of biodiversity, ecology, and their role in the various trophic webs they participate across different ecosystems.

Ablaxia makrisi, photo credit to Evangelos Koutsoukos.
Erythromalus makrisi, photo credit to Evangelos Koutsoukos.

“Each of the five new species was named with a story behind it. Two of the species [Ablaxia makrisi and Erythromalus makrisi] were named after Mr. Christodoulos Makris, prominent Cypriot entomologist, for his contributions on the Cypriot biodiversity, and for collecting the holotypes of these two species,” Koutsoukos explained.

*Hemitrichus* *akrotiriensis*. Photo credit to Evangelos Koutsoukos.

Hemitrichus akrotiriensis takes its name from the Akrotiri peninsula, described by Koutsoukos as “a protected area and one the greatest biodiversity hotspots in Cyprus, where the holotype was also collected from.” Another species, Ablaxia toxeftrae, was named after Toxeftra beach in the Akamas peninsula, where its holotype was found.

The final species carries perhaps the most evocative name of all:

Janssoniella aphrodite was named after the Greek Ancient Goddess Aphroditi, since the holotype of this species was collected in Yeroskipou area of Paphos, where the Goddess was worshipped during ancient times.
said Koutsoukos

Janssoniella aphrodite. Photo credit to Mircea-Dan Mitroiu.
Janssoniella aphrodite, Head, frontal view. Photo credit to Mircea-Dan Mitroiu.
Janssoniella aphrodite, fore wing. Photo credit to Mircea-Dan Mitroiu.

Before this study, only three chalcid wasp species were known to be unique to Cyprus. “Our collecting efforts yielded many more interesting specimens, which might represent new species as well,” said Koutsoukos, “and as such it is evident that these numbers are an underestimation of the true biodiversity of the island.”

“The outcomes of this project will contribute towards the enrichment of our knowledge of the biodiversity, not only of the island of Cyprus and the U.K. SBAs, but the whole region’s as well,” Koutsoukos said.

Original study:

Koutsoukos E, Mitroiu M-D (2026) Enriching inventories of rare genera: five new species of Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) from Cyprus. ZooKeys 1286: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1286.196157

New Hyperparasitoid Wasp Named After Ernest Hemingway Amid Efforts to Control Destructive Sugar Beet Pest

An international team of researchers has discovered a new hyperparasitoid wasp species, Chlorocytus papahemii, named in honor of Ernest Hemingway, and we’re sharing it today to mark his birthday.

“The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.” – Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940

Earth remains full of undiscovered species and unexplored interactions that continue to fascinate us, including, in the most ordinary of places, the fields where our food is grown.

The weevil beetle Lixus subtilis is a highly destructive insect that frequently damages agricultural crops, particularly sugar beets, across Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and China, Until now, scientific understanding of this beetle’s natural parasitic complexes, specifically the complete food chains involving parasitoids and hyperparasitoids (parasites of parasites) has been very limited.

However, developing biological methods of controlling plant pests should be based on an understanding of real, comprehensive regulatory systems within complete food chains.
the researchers emphasise in the article.

To investigate these relationships, researchers from Xinjiang University in China, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), and the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences joined forces on a collaborative study, now published in the open-access, peer-reviewed ZooKeys journal.

The team conducted field research in the sugar beet fields of Yining City and Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County in China’s Xinjiang region, an area that has experienced repeated outbreaks of the weevil pest. By carefully collecting damaged sugar beet leaf petioles and rearing the infected larvae in laboratory climate chambers, the scientists made two significant discoveries about the local wasp populations.

First, they recorded Eurytoma curculionum, a wasp that is already known to parasitise weevil larvae, in China for the very first time. Second, and more strikingly, they discovered an entirely new species of pteromalid wasp.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

The research team officially named the newly discovered wasp Chlorocytus papahemii, in honor of Ernest Hemingway, one of the most prominent literary figures of the 20th century.

the Hemingway hyperpasitoid wasp Chlorocytus papahemii — *Chlorocytus* *papahemii* Tselikh & Li, sp. nov., female, holotype. 24. Same, Body, lateral view; 25. Same, Head, frontal view; 26. Same, Fore wing; 27. Same, Head and pronotum, dorsal view; 28. Same, Antenna; 29. Same, Metasoma, dorsal view; 30. Same, Mesosoma, dorsal view; 31. Same, Body, dorsal view. Credit to Li et al., 2026.

Beyond its striking iridescent coloring, what makes Chlorocytus papahemii especially interesting is its behaviour: rather than attacking the crop-destroying weevil directly, it is a hyperparasitoid, meaning that it is parasitising Eurytoma curculionum, the very wasp that preys on the weevil.

This highly specialised behavior places hyperparasitoids at a complex fourth trophic level within ecosystems, one that can complicate biological control efforts, since hyperparasitoids often kill the beneficial primary parasitoids.

By meticulously documenting the morphology and biology of both wasp species, the study sheds new light on the hidden ecological dynamics at work in agricultural fields, particularly within economically important sugar beet crops. This work paves the way for more advanced, biologically informed strategies to manage weevil outbreaks and protect vital crop yields.

Original source:

Li Q, Liu Z, Li X, Yin H, Delvare G, Tselikh EV (2026) The hymenopteran parasitoid complex (Hymenoptera, Eurytomidae and Pteromalidae) of the weevil beetle Lixus subtilis Boheman, 1836 (Coleoptera, Curculionidae) in China. ZooKeys 1279: 345-356. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1279.188643

Scrolling for Science: How a Twitter Post Discovered a New Wasp in Fukuoka, Japan

Indeed, the next time you post a nature photo online, you might be contributing to a major scientific breakthrough.

The next time you post a nature photo online, you might be contributing to a major scientific breakthrough – just as several citizen scientists did when they helped discover the wasp Eupelmus curvator in Japan.

When a series of photos appeared on Twitter (now X) showing an iridescent wasp laying eggs on a praying mantis egg case, researchers from the Kyushu University Museum realised they weren’t looking at a common garden insect. Instead, they were witnessing a species never before seen in Japan: Eupelmus curvator.

“The discovery was made possible through social media,” said Taisuke Kawano, the lead researcher and a specialist in eupelmid wasps at the Kyushu University Museum.

“It all started with a post by a general user who shared a photo capturing a wasp emerging from a mantis egg case. A colleague of mine noticed the post and forwarded it to me via direct message.”

The wasp is the first record of Eupelmus curvator in Japan, a species previously known only to inhabit China. Perhaps more significantly, the recent study provided the first formal scientific description of the male of the species, which had remained a mystery until now.

*Eupelmus (Eupelmus) curvator*: female habitus. Photo credit: Taisuke Kawano et al., 2026.

A Rare Egg Hunter

“Eupelmus curvator is particularly interesting because it parasitises the egg cases of praying mantises.

While some other genera in Eupelmidae are specialised egg parasitoids, most species of Eupelmus attack larvae or pupae of other insects, and only very few are known to develop inside mantis oothecae. This makes Eupelmus curvator a rather unusual and biologically intriguing species.”
Taisuke Kawano

The researchers confirmed that the wasp targets the Narrow-winged Mantis (Tenodera angustipennis), turning the mantis’ future offspring into a nursery for its own young. In one case, a single mantis egg case collected in Fukuoka yielded 77 wasps and only a few surviving mantis nymphs.

Digital Collecting: The Future of Citizen Science

The research, published in the open-access journal Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa”, highlights a growing trend in biodiversity research: utilising digital collecting to find rare species.

In the spring of 2018 and again in 2021, citizen scientists and nature enthusiasts posted images and videos of the wasps’ behaviour on Twitter. Through direct communication on the platform, these users sent specimens to Kawano for identification.

“Social media is becoming an increasingly important tool in citizen science. One of its greatest strengths is that it effectively increases the number of ‘eyes in the field.’ These observations often come from places and times that researchers would not normally be able to cover.

When particularly interesting records appear, we can contact observers directly via social media, and in some cases obtain specimens for further study.”
Taisuke Kawano

To document the tiny find – females measure only about 2.2 to 3.2 mm excluding the ovipositor – the team used advanced macro photography and focus stacking technology to create hyper-detailed images of the wasp’s anatomy.

*Eupelmus (Eupelmus) curvator* ovipositing on mantis ootheca at Kyushu University Ito campus, Fukuoka. Photo credit: Taisuke Kawano et al., 2026.

Science in Your Backyard

The discovery suggests that even in well-studied regions like Japan, there is a wealth of biodiversity to be uncovered. The key, according to Kawano, is that scientists are now finding it in new ways:

“One of the most exciting aspects is how social media is changing the way we conduct research. The social media platforms allow researchers to encounter observations that would otherwise remain unnoticed, effectively transforming everyday posts into valuable scientific data.”

As for his own social media habits? Kawano admits the line between work and leisure has blurred:

“Personally, I sometimes joke that even when I am browsing social media, I am actually working. And it is sometimes true… though not always.”

The research was supported by grants from the Robert T. Huang Entrepreneurship Center of Kyushu University and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Cover image illustration by Kanji Toyosaki.

Original source:

Kawano T, Imada S, Noguchi S, Toyosaki K (2026) When your posts yield biodiversity findings: social media-facilitated discovery of Eupelmus (Eupelmus) curvator Yang (Hymenoptera, Eupelmidae) in Japan with notes on its bionomics. Travaux du Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle “Grigore Antipa” 69(1): 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3897/travaux.69.e171809

New insect genus discovered in one of the most biodiverse rain forest regions in the world

In their latest study, the researchers of the University of Turku in Finland describe a new wasp genus, Capitojoppa, to science.

The Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve in Peru has often been described as the most biodiverse rainforest in the world. For example, in recent decades, scientist have discovered several new bird species from the region. The researchers of the University of Turku in Finland have studied the insect biodiversity in Allpahuayo-Mishana for over twenty years. In their latest study, the scientist described a new wasp genus, Capitojoppa, to science.

In their newly published study, the researchers describe a new wasp genus Capitojoppa to science, categorising it to the subfamily Ichneumoninae.

Capitojoppa amazonica is a large parasitoid wasp species that has only been discovered in the Allpahuyao-Mishana National Reserve in the Peruvian Amazon. Photographer: Kari Kaunisto, Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku.

“Wasps belonging to this subfamily are usually large and colourful, especially in the tropics, and as larvae feed internally on moth and butterfly caterpillars and pupae. We have studied the biodiversity of ichneumonines in the Allpahuyao-Mishana National Reserve with the samples collected by the researchers of the University of Turku in Finland. In our studies, we have discovered several species unknown to science which we will describe in the future. The current study kicks off this research,” says Doctoral Candidate Brandon Claridge from the Utah State University in the United States.

The Allpahuyao-Mishana National Reserve first gained prominence in the scientific community in the late 1980s when an American botanist Alwyn Gentry documented the highest number of tree species at a single locality known to date.

“Gentry wanted to discover how many tree species can grow in one hectare (2.5 acres) of the Amazon rainforest. In his study, he discovered nearly 300 tree species in that one-hectare research patch. We have studied the insect biodiversity in the same research areas since 1998 and report some of the highest numbers of insect species in the world from this region. We also found Capitojoppa near the same research hectare used by Gentry,” says Professor of Biodiversity Research Ilari E. Sääksjärvi from the University of Turku, who collected the specimens during his field studies.

Species unknown to science are described in research journals. Their names often describe the species’ characteristics or range.

*Photo: Kari Kaunisto, Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku.*

“The name Capitojoppa tells scientists a great deal about the characteristics of the newly discovered wasp genus. The wasps of the genus have a large head, which is reflected in the capito part of the name. It also refers to the barbet bird genus Capito found in South America, which have a large and strong beak. The joppa part of the name refers to the wasp genus Joppa that the Capitojoppa resembles. The specific species name amazonica refers to the Amazon,” Claridge explains.

Finnish researchers helped in the conservation efforts of the Allpahuayo-Mishana Reserve in the 1990s.

“Allpahuayo-Mishana is a part of the Amazon that has an unprecedented abundance of species. Due to the region’s complex geological history, there are several different types of rainforest growing in the Reserve. The species biodiversity of many organisms is highest on the whole planet at Allpahuayo-Mishana. We actively continue our studies in the region. Unfortunately, the area is currently changing rapidly due to human activities. With our insect studies, we are trying to find out how the impact of human activities, such as climate change, alter the nature in the rainforest,” says Professor Sääksjärvi.

The group’s research article was published in the journal ZooKeys.

Research article:

Claridge BR, Kaunisto KM, Sääksjärvi IE (2023) Capitojoppa, a new genus of Ichneumoninae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) from Peruvian Amazonia. ZooKeys 1178: 69-76. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1178.108929

New species of parasitic wasp associated with soybean pest in Minnesota

“It’s really exciting to discover a new parasitoid species in such an important crop system.”

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (05/11/2023) — Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered a new species of tiny parasitic wasp that might prove beneficial to managing soybean gall midge, a recently emerged pest in Midwest soybean fields that can have devastating impacts on plant production.

Their findings were recently published in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

Since the appearance of the midge in 2018, growers have struggled to manage this insect, prompting researchers to seek effective and environmentally-friendly ways to help soybean farmers protect their crop. One approach is biological control, using natural enemies to kill pests. However, because soybean gall midge is new, very little is known about which species might prove to be good allies to growers in the fight against this damaging insect.

Soybean Gall Midge (Resseliella maxima). Photo by jyhmml used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

Amelia Lindsey, an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, and Robert Koch, an associate professor in the Department of Entomology and an Extension entomologist, led the team at the University of Minnesota. They focused on searching for parasitoids — insects that lay their eggs in or on another insect — of soybean gall midge. Juveniles of the parasitoid develop inside the other insect, eventually killing them.

To find such parasitic insects, a graduate student in the Lindsey and Koch labs, Gloria Melotto, collected soybean gall midge-infested plants from a Minnesota farm and waited to see which adult insects emerged from the plants.

The researchers found:

In addition to a lot of soybean gall midges, there were a number of tiny parasitoid wasps.
In collaboration with two taxonomists who specialize in this group of insects—Jessica Awad, doctoral researcher, State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart, and Elijah Talamas, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services—it became clear that there was no information on this wasp anywhere in the scientific record. It is a new-to-science species.
The team used DNA sequencing data and physical characteristics of the wasps to formally describe the specimens and give them a scientific name: Synopeas maximum.
The findings point toward this newly described parasitoid wasp species being a likely natural enemy of soybean gall midge.

“Unidentified and undescribed parasitoid micro-wasps are all around us. Although they are tiny, they play a huge role in regulating the populations of other insects, including pests. It’s really exciting to discover a new parasitoid species in such an important crop system,” said Awad.

“Effective management of soybean gall midge has proven challenging. Identification of a new species of parasitic wasp attacking this pest is an exciting breakthrough,” said Koch.

Ongoing work from the team includes a deeper dive into the biology of the wasp and the soybean gall midge to see how often this wasp attacks the pest, and how widespread this potential beneficial insect is across the midwest. Ultimately, the goal is to develop strategies for incorporating the natural enemy into management plans for safe and effective control of soybean gall midge infestations.

This research was supported by the Minnesota Rapid Agricultural Response Fund.

This research brief was originally published by the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. We republish it with their permission.

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Death from below: the first video of a parasitic wasp attacking caterpillar underwater

Named after fictional monster Godzilla, a parasitic wasp becomes the first observed and filmed to dive underwater for several seconds, in order to attack and pull out caterpillar hosts, so that it can lay its eggs inside them before releasing them back in the water.

A very few species of parasitoid wasps can be considered aquatic. Less than 0.1% of the species we know today have been found to enter the water, while searching for potential hosts or living as endoparasitoids inside of aquatic hosts during their larval stage.

Within the subfamily Microgastrinae (family Braconidae), only two species have previously been recorded to be aquatic, based on their parasitism of aquatic caterpillars of moths. However, none has been known to actually dive in the water.

Recently, during their research work in Japan, Dr. Jose Fernandez-Triana of the Canadian National Collection of Insects and his team found and recorded on camera the first microgastrine parasitoid wasp that dives underwater for several seconds, in order to attack and pull out caterpillar hosts, so that it can lay its eggs inside them before releasing them back in the water.

Interestingly, the wasp, which was described as a new to science species in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific Journal of Hymenoptera Research, was given the awe-striking name Microgaster godzilla, because its emergence out of the water reminded the scientists of the Japanese iconic fictional monster Godzilla.

In the video, the female wasp can be seen walking over floating plants as it searches for hosts, specifically larvae of the moth species Elophila turbata, which constructs a portable case from fragments of aquatic plants and lives inside it near the water surface. Once the wasp finds one of those cases, it first probes it repeatedly with its antennae, while moving around. Eventually, it forces the larvae to come out of the case and parasitizes it by quickly inserting its ovipositor. In some cases, the wasp has to submerge completely underwater for several seconds, in order to find and pull the caterpillar out of its case. To do this, the species has evolved enlarged and strongly curved tarsal claws, which are thought to be used to grip the substrate as it enters the water and looks for hosts.

A female wasp Microgaster godzilla seeks out a moth caterpillar, dives in the water and pulls it out of its case, in order to parasitize it by quickly inserting its ovipositor.
Video by Dr. Jose Fernandez-Triana

As for the curious choice of name for the new species, Dr. Jose Fernandez-Triana explains:

“The reasons why we decided to use the name of Godzilla for the wasp species are interesting. First, being a Japanese species, it respectfully honours Godzilla (Japanese: ゴジラ, Hepburn: Gōjira), a fictional monster (kaiju) that became an icon after the 1954 Japanese film of the same name and many remakes afterwards. It has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture worldwide. Second, the wasp’s parasitization behaviour bears some loose resemblance to the kaiju character, in the sense that the wasp suddenly emerges from the water to parasitize the host, similar to how Godzilla suddenly emerges from the water in the movies. Third, Godzilla has sometimes been associated, albeit in different ways, with Mothra (Japanese: モスラ, Hepburn: Mosura), another kaiju that is typically portrayed as a larva (caterpillar) or an adult moth. As you can see, we had biological, behavioural and cultural reasons to justify our choice of a name. Of course, that and having a bit of fun, because that is also an important part of life and science!”

Beyond unusual behaviours and funny names, Dr. Fernandez-Triana wants to emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary work and collaboration. The team that published this paper got to know each other at an international meeting devoted to biological control (The 5th International Entomophagous Insects Conference in Kyoto, Japan, 2017).

“I was very impressed by several presentations by Japanese grad students, which included video recordings of parasitoid wasp biology. As a taxonomist, I am always impressed with the quality of research done by colleagues in other fields. In this case, we saw an opportunity to combine our efforts to study the wasp in detail and, when we found that it was a new species, we described it together, including adding the filmed behaviour to the original description. Usually, taxonomic descriptions of parasitoid wasps are based on dead specimens, with very few details–often none–on its biology. Thanks to my biocontrol colleagues, we could add more information to what is known about the new species being described. Hopefully we can continue this collaboration and combined approach for future studies”.

Original source:

Fernandez-Triana J, Kamino T, Maeto K, Yoshiyasu Y, Hirai N (2020) Microgaster godzilla (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Microgastrinae), an unusual new species from Japan which dives underwater to parasitize its caterpillar host (Lepidoptera, Crambidae, Acentropinae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 79: 15-26. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.79.56162

New species of parasitic wasp discovered in the eggs of leaf-rolling weevils in Africa

A new species of parasitic wasp has been obtained from the eggs of weevils, associated with bushwillows, collected and identified by Dr. Silvano Biondi. Given the tiny insect from northeastern Gabon is the first record of its genus for West-Central Africa, the researchers Dr. Stefania Laudonia and Dr. Gennaro Viggiani, both affiliated with Italy’s University of Naples Federico II, decided to celebrate it by assigning the species a name that refers to the continent. Their team has published the findings in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Named Poropoea africana, the new species belongs to a large worldwide group of wasps well-known as egg parasitoids of leaf-rolling weevils. Using characteristically long ovipositors, they lay their own eggs in the eggs of the hosts, found in cigar-like rolls.

The new wasp measures less than 2 mm. It can be distinguished from related species by a number of characters, including the structure of the antennae, and the front and hind legs, which are more robust than the middle ones. The latter, which is a unique trait for the genus, seems to be an adaptation to host parasitisation, where the modified legs likely support the body and improve the propulsive efficiency of the ovipositor.

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Original source:

Laudonia S, Viggiani G, Biondi S (2017) A new species of Poropoea Foerster from Africa (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Trichogrammatidae). ZooKeys 658: 81-87. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.658.11501

Hollywood star Brad Pitt shares a name with a new wasp species from South Africa

Not only did an international research team discover two new endoparasitic wasp species in South Africa and India, and significantly expanded their genera’s distributional range, but they also gave a celebrity name to a special one of them.

While thinking of a name for the new wasp, Dr Buntika A. Butcher, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, recalled her long hours of studying in her laboratory right under the poster of her favourite film actor. This is how a parasitic wasp from South Africa was named after Hollywood star Brad Pitt. The researchers have published their findings in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The new wasp species, called Conobregma bradpitti, belongs to a large worldwide group of wasps parasitising in moth or butterfly caterpillars. These wasps lay their eggs into a host, which once parasitised starts hardening. Thus, the wasp cocoon can safely develop and later emerge from the ‘mummified’ larva. Despite their macabre behaviour, many of these wasp species are considered valuable in agriculture because of their potential as biological control.

Brad Pitt’s flying namesake is a tiny creature measuring less than 2 mm. Its body is deep brown, nearly black in colour, while its head, antennae and legs are brown-yellow. The wings stand out with their much brighter shades.

Interestingly, the wasp with celebrity name unites two, until now, doubtful genera. Being very similar, they had already been noted to have only four diagnostic features that set them apart. However, C. bradpitti shared two of those with each. Thus, the species prompted the solution of the taxonomic problem and, as a result, the two were synonymised.

In their paper, the authors from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and the University of Calicut, India, also describe another new species of parasitic wasp. It is the first from its subtribe spotted in the whole of India, while its closest ‘relative’ lives in Nepal.

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Original source:

Butcher BA, Quicke DLJ, Shreevihar S, Ranjith AP (2016) Major range extensions for two genera of the parasitoid subtribe Facitorina, with a new generic synonymy (Braconidae, Rogadinae, Yeliconini). ZooKeys 584: 109-120. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.584.7815

Seventy-four cuckoos in the nest: A new key to all North European cuckoo wasp species

Captivating with their bright, vivid and brilliantly metallic bodies, the cuckoo wasps are also fascinating with their curious lifestyle, which has given them this common name. However, in terms of their taxonomic grouping, they have been quite problematic due to similarities between species and a wide range of variations within them.

To shed light on the issue, an international research team, led by MSc Juho Paukkunen, Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki, provides descriptions and illustrations of all 74 species found in the Nordic and Baltic countries, including one new, in their recent publication in the open-access journal ZooKeys.

Beautiful in appearance, the cuckoo wasps penetrate the nests of unrelated solitary wasps and solitary bees to lay their eggs, similar to how a cuckoo bird does in songbird nests. With their armoured bodies and the ability to curl up into a tight ball the cuckoo wasps are well-defended against the owners of the nests and their stings and jaws. At the larval stage, they take advantage of their hosts by either parasitising them or stealing their food, eventually killing the host’s offspring.

Within the Nordic representatives of the family there are an exceptionally large number of red-listed and endangered species. This is one of the reasons why the authors intend to trigger more interest among their fellow entomologists about these curious wasps. They have compiled all relevant information concerning their distribution, abundance, habitats, flight season and host species. The authors have tried to keep their identification key as comprehensive and concise as possible, by singling out the essential information on diagnostic characters.

In the present study, the researchers describe a new species, called Chrysis borealis, which can be translated as ‘Northern’ cuckoo wasp. Although the male and female individuals are very similar, there is a significant variation in the colouration within the species. It is especially noticeable between the specimens collected from the northern localities and those from the southern ones. For instance, while the middle section of the body in southern specimens is either bright blue or violet with a greenish shimmer, in northern individuals it is nearly black, turning to greenish or golden green at the periphery.

The varying shades within a certain species are quite common among the cuckoo wasps. While it is often that distinctive colouration among other wasps and insects indicates their separate origin and therefore, taxonomic placement, within the emerald family it can be a mere case of habitat location with the northern populations typically darker.

Such tendencies often lead to doubts such as the one the authors have faced regarding their new species. It has been suggested that the Northern cuckoo wasp is in fact yet another variation of the very similar C. impressa, which is generally slightly brighter in colour, but at the same time distributed in warmer localities. However, using DNA sequence information and morphometric analysis, the team shows that there are enough consistent differences to separate them as distinct species, although they are defined as evolutionarily young siblings.

With their research the authors intend to provide a basis for further and more detailed studies on the distribution, biology and morphology of the North European representatives of these intriguing wasps.

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Original source:

Paukkunen J, Berg A, Soon V, Odegaard F, Rosa P (2015) An illustrated key to the cuckoo wasps (Hymenoptera, Chrysididae) of the Nordic and Baltic countries, with description of a new species. ZooKeys 548: 1-116. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.548.6164

Call for arms and stings: Social wasps use alarm pheromones to coordinate their attacks

Humans might know them as vicious stingers, but yellow jacket wasps also impress with their vigorous protection over their young. To resolve the mystery around their complex defensive behavior, a Canadian research team, led by Dr. Sean McCann, Simon Fraser University, have used simple components to develop and construct a device that consequently helped them to locate the species-specific alarm pheromones in three wasp groups. The insects use the emission of these substances to mark the enemy threatening their colonies and then join forces against it. The study is published in the open-access Journal of Hymenoptera Research.

Social insects invest a lot of work and resources in their colonies, working together to raise large numbers of larvae. Because their nests contain so many protein-rich, yet helpless young, they have evolved elaborate defence mechanisms to protect them.

One way the social wasps have found to increase the efficiency of their defence is through chemical signals, called alarm pheromones, which are used to rouse the colony to action and mark intruders for attack. As a result, the coordinated attack of a large colony of yellow jackets can drive even large predators away from the nest. Several social wasp alarm pheromones have been discovered, and most of these have been detected in the venom sacs of the wasps. Nonetheless, the process of finding out which chemicals are involved requires many experiments in the field in addition to chemical analysis.

“We developed a new and standardized method to evaluate alarm pheromone activity in yellowjackets and other social wasps that is inexpensive and easy to use. The device we constructed uses off-the-shelf components, and consists of a pair of black targets enclosing a pair of microphones,” explain the authors.

“A test substance and a control can be applied to each target, and then a stereo audio file is recorded at the nest site,” they further comment. “When wasps hit the black targets, it makes a percussive sound, almost like a drum. The resulting stereo file is then split and analysed with an open-source software program to count the number of strikes received by the treatment and control targets.”

The advantage of this system is its ease of use, low cost, and the ability to use rapid automated counting, which saves a lot of time compared to other methods.

The scientist have used this new method to figure whether three species of yellow jackets (the western yellow jacket, the common yellow jacket and the German yellow jacket) have alarm pheromones, and whether each species is able to recognize each of the alarm pheromones of the rest.

“We found evidence for alarm pheromones in all three species, and that each species recognizes and responds to the other species’ alarm pheromones in similar ways,” say the researchers. “We conclude that the chemical messages produced by these three yellow jacket species must be very similar.”

“It makes sense that wasps can recognize the alarm pheromones of other species, because it would be advantageous to be able to detect a pheromone-marked predator that has attacked other wasps nearby and start stinging it to drive it away before it finds their own colony,” conclude the authors.

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Original source:

McCann S, Moeri O, Jimenez SI, Scott C, Gries G (2015) Developing a paired-target apparatus for quantitative testing of nest defense behavior by vespine wasps in response to con- or heterospecific nest defense pheromones. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 46: 151-163. doi: 10.3897/JHR.46.6585.