Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India have discovered a new species of wasp, a winged insect, in the Western Ghat hills part of Kerala. The new species is Taeniogonalos dhritiae, named after ZSI Director Dhriti Banerjee.
Credit: PTI
Kolkata: Scientists of the Zoological Survey of India have discovered a new species of wasp, a winged insect, in the Western Ghat hills part of Kerala, a top ZSI official said on Wednesday.
The new species, Taeniogonalos dhritiae, has been discovered in the Ranipuram Hills area, ZSI Director Dhriti Banerjee told PTI here.
The species is named after Dr Dhriti Banerjee, a noted entomologist.
Conducted by P Girish Kumar and VD Hegde, scientists of Western Ghats Regional Centre, ZSI, Kozhikode, the research work was published in the latest issue of the international journal ‘Zootaxa’.
Taeniogonalos dhritiae is a species in the family of Trigonalyidae. While there are about 122 described species of Trigonalyidae, in 16 genes worldwide, the knowledge of Indian Trigonalyidae is scanty with only eight described species till date, she said.
These insects are hyperparasitoids (parasites of parasites) where females lay eggs on other parasitic wasps.
The Trigonalyidae family is found in abundance in the parts of Europe, Northern Africa and Asia.