Microgaster godzilla

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Microgaster godzilla
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Braconidae
Genus: Microgaster
Species:
M. godzilla
Binomial name
Microgaster godzilla
Fernandez-Triana & Kamino, 2020

Microgaster godzilla is a species of aquatic parasitoid wasp from Japan. Its host is the caterpillar Elophila turbata . [1] The wasp is named after Godzilla (1954 film). [2]

Related Research Articles

Parasitoid Organism that lives with host and kills it

In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasitism, distinguished by the fatal prognosis for the host, which makes the strategy close to predation.

Paper wasp Vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems

Paper wasps are vespid wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct nests made of gray or brown papery material. Some types of paper wasps are also sometimes called umbrella wasps, due to the distinctive design of their nests.

Ichneumonoidea 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.

Ichneumonidae Family of wasps

The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, is a parasitoid wasp family within the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species currently described. 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. 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.

Hyperparasite

A hyperparasite is a parasite whose host, often an insect, is also a parasite, often specifically a parasitoid. Hyperparasites are found mainly among the wasp-waisted Apocrita within the Hymenoptera, and in two other insect orders, the Diptera and Coleoptera (beetles). Seventeen families in Hymenoptera and a few species of Diptera and Coleoptera are hyperparasitic. Hyperparasitism developed from primary parasitism, which evolved in the Jurassic period in the Hymenoptera. Hyperparasitism intrigues entomologists because of its multidisciplinary relationship to evolution, ecology, behavior, biological control, taxonomy, and mathematical models.

Braconidae 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.

Parasitoid wasp Group of wasps

Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causing the death of these hosts. Different species specialise in hosts from different insect orders, most often Lepidoptera, though some select beetles, flies, or bugs; the spider wasps (Pompilidae) exclusively attack spiders.

Trigonalidae Family of wasps

Trigonalidae is one of the more unusual families of hymenopteran insects, of indeterminate affinity within the suborder Apocrita, and presently placed in a unique superfamily, Trigonaloidea, and the only extant taxon in the superfamily. The other putative related taxon is an extinct family named Maimetshidae, though this group is sometimes included in Megalyridae making Trigonalidae the only member of Trigonaloidea. Trigonalidae are divided into 2 subfamilies; Orthogonalinae and Trigonalinae. These wasps are extremely rare, but surprisingly diverse, with over 90 species in over 30 genera, and are known from all parts of the world. It is possibly the sister group to all Aculeata.

<i>Glyptapanteles</i> Genus of wasps

Glyptapanteles is a genus of endoparasitoid wasps found in Central and North America and New Zealand. The larvae of the members of Glyptapanteles sp. are distinguished by their ability to manipulate their hosts into serving as bodyguards.

Wasp Members of the order Hymenoptera which are not ants nor bees

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.

Microgastrinae Subfamily of wasps

Microgastrinae is a subfamily of braconid wasps, encompassing almost 3,000 described species, with an estimated 30,000–50,000 total species. This makes it one of the richest subfamilies with the most species of parasitoid wasps.

<i>Euplectrus</i> Genus of wasps

Euplectrus is a genus of hymenopteran insects of the family Eulophidae.

Microplitis croceipes is a braconid wasp native to the US state of Georgia. It is an important parasitoid of caterpillars, including those of major agricultural pests Helicoverpa zea and Heliothis virescens.

<i>Ammophila sabulosa</i> Species of wasp

Ammophila sabulosa, the red-banded sand wasp, is a species of the subfamily Ammophilinae of the hunting wasp family Sphecidae. Found in northern Europe, the wasp is notable for the mass provisioning behaviour of the females, hunting caterpillars mainly on sunny days, paralysing them with a sting, and burying them in a burrow with a single egg. The species is also remarkable for the extent to which females parasitise their own species, either stealing prey from nests of other females to provision their own nests, or in brood parasitism, removing the other female's egg and laying one of her own instead.

<i>Cotesia glomerata</i> Species of wasp

Cotesia glomerata, the white butterfly parasite, is a small parasitic wasp species belonging to family Braconidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 publication 10th edition of Systema Naturae.

<i>Cotesia</i> Genus of wasps

Cotesia is a genus of braconid wasps first described by Peter Cameron in 1891. Some species parasitize caterpillars of species considered pests, and are used as biocontrol agents. Cotesia congregata parasitizes the tomato and the tobacco hornworms. C. glomerata and C. rubecula feed on the cabbage white and other white butterfly caterpillars. C. gonopterygis and C. risilis are host-specific and parasitize the common brimstone.

<i>Elophila turbata</i> Species of moth

Elophila turbata is a moth in the family Crambidae found in Africa and Asia. It was first described by the English entomologist Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1881 from a specimen found in Yokohama, Japan.

<i>Diolcogaster</i> Genus of wasps

Diolcogaster is a genus of parasitoid wasps within the subfamily Microgastrinae of the family Braconidae. The genus is poorly studied, likely with multiple undescribed species. The type species is Diolcogaster melligaster(Provancher, 1886), formerly Microgaster melligaster. Species in this genus parasitize lepidopterans and are geographically widespread. There are more than 140 described species in Diolcogaster found throughout the world.

<i>Microplitis mandibularis</i> Species of wasp

Microplitis mandibularis is a gregarious parasitoid wasp in the family Braconidae (Hymenoptera).

References

  1. Fernandez-Triana, Jose; Kamino, Tetsuyuki; Maeto, Kaoru; Yoshiyasu, Yutaka; Hirai, Norio (October 30, 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. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  2. "Death from below: the first video of a parasitic wasp attacking caterpillar underwater". EurekAlert. PENSOFT PUBLISHERS. 2020-11-04. Retrieved 2021-10-28.