Listrodromus nycthemerus

Last updated

Listrodromus nycthemerus
Listrodromus nycthemerus.png
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Ichneumonidae
Genus: Listrodromus
Species:
L. nycthemerus
Binomial name
Listrodromus nycthemerus
(Gravenhorst, 1820)
Synonyms [1]
  • Ichneumon nycthemerus Gravenhorst, 1820
  • Listrodromus quinqueguttatus (Gravenhorst, 1829)

Listrodromus nycthemerus, the holly blue Darwin wasp, [2] is a species of ichneumon wasp belonging to the family Ichneumonidae. This species is a parasitoid, its sole host species being the holly blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus).

Contents

Taxonomy

Listrodromus nycthemerus was first formally described as Ichneumon nycthemerus by the German zoologist Johann Ludwig Christian Gravenhorst from Piedmont. [1] This species was classified in the new genus Listrodromus in 1845 by Constantin Wesmael, this species being the type species of that genus. [3] Traditionally the genus was included in the tribe Listrodromini within the subfamily Ichneumoninae but is now classified within tribe Ichneumonini. [4]

Description

Listrodromus nycthemerus is a very small wasp which is predominantly black and yellow. [5] This species has a body length of 8–9 mm (0.31–0.35 in). [2]

Distribution

Listrodromus nycthemerus has been recorded from Europe where records come from Ireland, [6] Great Britain, [7] Netherlands, France, Spain, Germany, southern Norway, southern Sweden, southern Finland, Croatia and Austria. [1]

Life cycle

Listrodromus nycthemerus is a parasitoid of the holly blue, and has no other known host. The wasp lays an egg on a first instar caterpillar of the holly blue, inserting the egg into the caterpillar's body and the adult wasp emerges from the chrysalis, killing the chrysalis before its emergence. The population of the butterfly is tracked by that of the wasp, when holly blue populations are low the wasp population falls and this allows the butterfly population to increase and the population of L. nycthemerus can increase as there are more hosts available to be parasitised. [8] The wasp population takes 6 or 7 years to reach its peak and at its peak as many as 99% of the holly blue caterpillars will be host to a larval wasp, causing the host population to crash. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ichneumonoidea</span> Superfamily of wasps

The superfamily Ichneumonoidea contains one extinct and three extant families, including the two largest families within Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae and Braconidae. The group is thought to contain as many as 100,000 species, many of which have not yet been described. Like other parasitoid wasps, they were long placed in the "Parasitica", variously considered as an infraorder or an unranked clade, now known to be paraphyletic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ichneumonidae</span> Family of wasps

The Ichneumonidae, also known as ichneumon wasps, ichneumonid wasps, ichneumonids, or Darwin wasps, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species described as of 2016. However, this likely represents less than a quarter of their true richness as reliable estimates are lacking, along with much of the most basic knowledge about their ecology, distribution, and evolution. It is estimated that there are more species in this family than there are species of birds and mammals combined. Ichneumonid wasps, with very few exceptions, attack the immature stages of holometabolous insects and spiders, eventually killing their hosts. They thus fulfill an important role as regulators of insect populations, both in natural and semi-natural systems, making them promising agents for biological control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holly blue</span> Species of butterfly

The holly blue is a butterfly that belongs to the lycaenids or blues family and is native to the Palearctic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Braconidae</span> Family of wasps

The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis estimated a total between 30,000 and 50,000, and another provided a narrower estimate between 42,000 and 43,000 species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pimplinae</span> Subfamily of wasps

Pimplinae are a worldwide subfamily of the parasitic wasp family Ichneumonidae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasp</span> Group of insects

A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. The wasps do not constitute a clade, a complete natural group with a single ancestor, as bees and ants are deeply nested within the wasps, having evolved from wasp ancestors. Wasps that are members of the clade Aculeata can sting their prey.

<i>Ichneumon insidiosus</i> Species of wasp

Ichneumon insidiosus is a species belonging to the family Ichneumonidae subfamily Ichneumoninae. It was first described by Constantin Wesmael in 1844.

<i>Polysphincta boops</i> Species of wasp

Polysphincta boops is a species belonging to the family Ichneumonidae subfamily Pimplinae.

<i>Rhyssa persuasoria</i> Species of wasp

Rhyssa persuasoria, also known as the sabre wasp, is a species belonging to the family Ichneumonidae subfamily Rhyssinae. Members of this subfamily, including those of Rhyssa and the allied Megarhyssa, are also known collectively as giant ichneumonid wasps or giant ichneumons.

<i>Vulgichneumon saturatorius</i> Species of wasp

Vulgichneumon saturatorius is a species of parasitoid wasp in the ichneumonid family.

<i>Ichneumon</i> (genus) Genus of wasps

Ichneumon is a genus of parasitoid wasps in the family Ichneumonidae.

<i>Amblyteles armatorius</i> Species of wasp

Amblyteles armatorius is a species of parasitic wasp in the family Ichneumonidae first described by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1771.

Ichneumon eumerus is a species of parasitic wasp belonging to the family Ichneumonidae, subfamily Ichneumoninae. It is a specialist parasite of the larva of the mountain Alcon blue butterfly.

<i>Pimpla rufipes</i> Species of wasp

Pimpla rufipes, the black slip wasp, is a species of wasp belonging to the family Ichneumonidae. It is distributed across Europe, Asia, and northern Africa.

<i>Trogus</i> (wasp) Genus of wasps

Trogus is a genus of parasitoid wasp found in the Holarctic and Neotropic regions. It is placed in the subfamily Ichneumoninae and the tribe Ichneumonini. Trogus species are parasites of larvae and pupae of the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae. The genus consists of twelve extant and one extinct species.

<i>Habronyx</i> Genus of wasps

Habronyx is a genus of parasitoid wasps belonging to the family Ichneumonidae. The species of this genus are found in Europe, Australia, and North and South America.

<i>Netelia producta</i> Species of wasp

Netelia producta is a species of ichneumonid wasp in the subfamily Tryphoninae found in Australia.

Eurylabus is a genus of ichneumon wasps in the family Ichneumonidae. There are about 11 described species in Eurylabus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Platylabini</span>

Platylabini is a tribe of ichneumon wasps in the family Ichneumonidae. There are at least 40 genera and about 8 described species in Platylabini.

<i>Listrodromus</i> Genus of wasps

Listrodromus is a genus of ichneumon wasps belonging to the family Ichneumonidae. These wasps are parasitoids of butterflies of the family Lycaenidae, laying eggs in the caterpillars.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Listrodromus nycthemerus (Gravenhorst, 1820)". GBIF. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  2. 1 2 Paul Brock (2021). Britain's Insects: A field guide to the insects of Great Britain and Ireland. Wild Guides. p. 475. ISBN   978-0-691-17927-8.
  3. ↑ I. D. Gauld (1984). An Introduction to the Ichneumonidae of Australia (PDF). British Museum (Natural History). ISBN   0-565-00895-1.
  4. ↑ Matthias Riedel (2023). "New contribution to the Oriental species of Anisobas WESMAEL and Listrodromus WESMAEL (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae, Ichneumoninae)". Linzer biologische Beiträge. 54 (2): 625–639. doi:10.35011/lbb.54.2-43.
  5. ↑ "Listrodromus nycthemerus". NatureSpot. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  6. ↑ Regan, Eugenie; Lovatt, John; and Wilson, Chris (2010). "Natural fluctuation in the numbers of the holly blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus (L.)) (Lepidoptera: Rhopalocera) in Ireland". The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 31: 123–125. doi:10.2307/41419120.
  7. 1 2 "Woodland and Hedgerow - Parasitic Wasps". Nature Conservation Imaging - The Photographs ofjeremy Early. Jeremy Early. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
  8. ↑ "Holly Blue defies predatory wasp - Big Butterfly Count results". Butterfly Conservation. 9 October 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.