Braconid and Ichneumonid Parasitoid Wasps

The Ichneumonoidea is a vast and important superfamily of
parasitic wasps, with some 60,000 described species and estimated
numbers far higher, especially for small-bodied tropical taxa. The
superfamily comprises two cosmopolitan families - Braconidae and
Ichneumonidae - that have largely attracted separate groups of
researchers, and this, to a considerable extent, has meant that
understanding of their adaptive features has often been considered
in isolation. This book considers both families, highlighting
similarities and differences in their

adaptations.

The classification of the whole of the Ichneumonoidea, along with
most other insect orders, has been plagued by typology whereby
undue importance has been attributed to particular characters in
defining groups. Typology is a common disease of traditional
taxonomy such that, until recently, quite a lot of taxa have been
associated with the wrong higher clades. The sheer size of the
group, and until the last 30 or so years, lack of accessible
identification materials, has been a further impediment to research
on all but a handful of 'lab rat' species usually
cultured initially because of their potential in biological
control.

New evidence, largely in the form of molecular data, have shown
that many morphological, behavioural, physiological and anatomical
characters associated with basic life history features,
specifically whether wasps are ecto- or endoparasitic, or idiobiont
or koinobiont, can be grossly misleading in terms of the phylogeny
they suggest. This book shows how, with better supported
phylogenetic hypotheses entomologists can understand far more about
the ways natural selection is acting upon them.

This new book also focuses on this superfamily with which the
author has great familiarity and provides a detailed coverage of
each subfamily, emphasising anatomy, taxonomy and
systematics, biology, as well as pointing out the importance and
research potential of each group. Fossil taxa are included and it
also has sections on

biogeography, global species richness, culturing and rearing and
preparing specimens for taxonomic study. The book highlights areas
where research might be particularly rewarding and suggests
systems/groups that need investigation. The author provides a large
compendium of references to original research on each group. This
book is an essential workmate for all postgraduates and researchers
working on ichneumonoid or other parasitic wasps worldwide. It will
stand as a reference book for a good number of years, and while
rapid advances in various fields such as genomics and host
physiological interactions will lead to new information, as an
overall synthesis of the current state it will stay relevant for a
long time.

Auteur

Donald L. J. Quicke is currently Visiting Professor at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in zoology and after doctoral and postdoctoral work on snail neurophysiology, sea anemone ecology and spider venoms, made parasitic wasps, and especially the ichneumonoid wasp family Braconidae, his main love and research interest. He held a lectureship at Sheffield University, moved to Imperial College London in 1993 and held a joint post between them and the Natural History Museum, London, until retiring in 2013 to live in Thailand. He was made Professor of Systematics in 2008. He has travelled widely collecting and studying parasitic wasps, especially in Africa. Over the past years he has described more than 560 new species and 76 new genera, including a number of fossil taxa, as well as making extensive studies of functional anatomy parasitic wasp ovipositors which are of enormous biological importance. A lot of his recent work has concerned global diversity estimation and patterns.

Résumé

The Ichneumonoidea is a vast and important superfamily of parasitic wasps, with some 60,000 described species and estimated numbers far higher, especially for small-bodied tropical taxa. The superfamily comprises two cosmopolitan families - Braconidae and Ichneumonidae - that have largely attracted separate groups of researchers, and this, to a considerable extent, has meant that understanding of their adaptive features has often been considered in isolation. This book considers both families, highlighting similarities and differences in their
adaptations.

The classification of the whole of the Ichneumonoidea, along with most other insect orders, has been plagued by typology whereby undue importance has been attributed to particular characters in defining groups. Typology is a common disease of traditional taxonomy such that, until recently, quite a lot of taxa have been associated with the wrong higher clades. The sheer size of the group, and until the last 30 or so years, lack of accessible identification materials, has been a further impediment to research on all but a handful of 'lab rat' species usually cultured initially because of their potential in biological control.

New evidence, largely in the form of molecular data, have shown that many morphological, behavioural, physiological and anatomical characters associated with basic life history features, specifically whether wasps are ecto- or endoparasitic, or idiobiont or koinobiont, can be grossly misleading in terms of the phylogeny they suggest. This book shows how, with better supported phylogenetic hypotheses entomologists can understand far more about the ways natural selection is acting upon them.

This new book also focuses on this superfamily with which the author has great familiarity and provides a detailed coverage of each subfamily, emphasising anatomy, taxonomy and systematics, biology, as well as pointing out the importance and research potential of each group. Fossil taxa are included and it also has sections on
biogeography, global species richness, culturing and rearing and preparing specimens for taxonomic study. The book highlights areas where research might be particularly rewarding and suggests systems/groups that need investigation. The author provides a large compendium of references to original research on each group. This book is an essential workmate for all postgraduates and researchers working on ichneumonoid or other parasitic wasps worldwide. It will stand as a reference book for a good number of years, and while rapid advances in various fields such as genomics and host physiological interactions will lead to new information, as an overall synthesis of the current state it will stay relevant for a long time.

Contenu

Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xv

1 Introduction 1

Life history 5

Systematics 6

Part 1 Morphology and Biology 7

2 Adult External Morphology 9

Head 10

Antennal sensilla 12

Antennal glands and tyloids 14

Palps 15

Mesosoma 15

Legs 17

Wings wing venation and wing cells 18

Confusing and sometimes erroneously applied vein names 26

Wing flexion lines 27

Metasoma 29

Sexual dimorphism 30

Male external genitalia 32

3 The Ovipositor and Ovipositor Sheaths 35

The act of oviposition 39

Functional morphology of wood-drillers 41

Ovipositor stabilisation guides and buckling force 43

Ovipositor notches and endoparasitism 44

Ovipositor steering mechanisms 44

Proposed evolutionary and related ovipositor transitions 48

Number position and possible functions of ovipositor valvilli 50

Venom retention and delivery 52

Ovipositor secretory pores 53

Ovipositor sensilla 54

Ovipositor sheaths 55

4 Internal and Reproductive Anatomy 57

Nervous system 58

Digestive tract 58

Female internal reproductive system 59

Ovaries 59

Time scale of egg maturation 60

Spermatheca 61 …