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    Diversity: Megascolia Procer Chalcosoma Atlas Megarhyssa Macrurus

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    Amil Krishnan
    Wasps are an extremely diverse group with over 100,000 described species worldwide. They exhibit a wide range of behaviors, including parasitism where females lay eggs on or in host arthropods for larvae to feed on. Some parasitoid larvae initially feed on host hemolymph before becoming plant-feeding if their host is parasitized. The largest wasps can reach lengths over 5 cm, such as Asian giant hornets and tarantula hawk wasps. The smallest wasps are solitary chalcid wasps only 139-158 micrometers in length. Ichneumonoid families contain an estimated 100,000 parasitoid species that mostly utilize other insects as hosts.

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    Diversity: Megascolia Procer Chalcosoma Atlas Megarhyssa Macrurus

    Uploaded by

    Amil Krishnan
    25 views2 pages
    Wasps are an extremely diverse group with over 100,000 described species worldwide. They exhibit a wide range of behaviors, including parasitism where females lay eggs on or in host arthropods for larvae to feed on. Some parasitoid larvae initially feed on host hemolymph before becoming plant-feeding if their host is parasitized. The largest wasps can reach lengths over 5 cm, such as Asian giant hornets and tarantula hawk wasps. The smallest wasps are solitary chalcid wasps only 139-158 micrometers in length. Ichneumonoid families contain an estimated 100,000 parasitoid species that mostly utilize other insects as hosts.

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    diversity

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    Wasps are an extremely diverse group with over 100,000 described species worldwide. They exhibit a wide range of behaviors, including parasitism where females lay eggs on or in host arthropods for larvae to feed on. Some parasitoid larvae initially feed on host hemolymph before becoming plant-feeding if their host is parasitized. The largest wasps can reach lengths over 5 cm, such as Asian giant hornets and tarantula hawk wasps. The smallest wasps are solitary chalcid wasps only 139-158 micrometers in length. Ichneumonoid families contain an estimated 100,000 parasitoid species that mostly utilize other insects as hosts.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    25 views2 pages

    Diversity: Megascolia Procer Chalcosoma Atlas Megarhyssa Macrurus

    Uploaded by

    Amil Krishnan
    Wasps are an extremely diverse group with over 100,000 described species worldwide. They exhibit a wide range of behaviors, including parasitism where females lay eggs on or in host arthropods for larvae to feed on. Some parasitoid larvae initially feed on host hemolymph before becoming plant-feeding if their host is parasitized. The largest wasps can reach lengths over 5 cm, such as Asian giant hornets and tarantula hawk wasps. The smallest wasps are solitary chalcid wasps only 139-158 micrometers in length. Ichneumonoid families contain an estimated 100,000 parasitoid species that mostly utilize other insects as hosts.

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    Diversity

    Wasps are a diverse group, estimated at over a hundred thousand described species around the
    world, and a great many more as yet undescribed.[9][a] For example, there are over 800 species
    of fig trees, mostly in the tropics, and almost all of these has its own specific fig
    wasp (Chalcidoidea) to effect pollination.[10]
    Many wasp species are parasitoids; the females deposit eggs on or in a host arthropod on which
    the larvae then feed. Some larvae start off as parasitoids, but convert at a later stage to
    consuming the plant tissues that their host is feeding on. In other species, the eggs are laid
    directly into plant tissues and form galls, which protect the developing larvae from predators but
    not necessarily from other parasitic wasps. In some species, the larvae are predatory
    themselves; the wasp eggs are deposited in clusters of eggs laid by other insects, and these are
    then consumed by the developing wasp larvae. [10]
    The largest social wasp is the Asian giant hornet, at up to 5 centimetres (2.0 in) in length.[11] The
    various tarantula hawk wasps are of a similar size[12] and can overpower a spider many times its
    own weight, and move it to its burrow, with a sting that is excruciatingly painful to humans. [13] The
    solitary giant scoliid, Megascolia procer, with a wingspan of 11.5 cm,[14] has subspecies
    in Sumatra and Java;[15] it is a parasitoid of the Atlas beetle Chalcosoma atlas.[16] The female giant
    ichneumon wasp Megarhyssa macrurus is 12.5 centimetres (5 in) long including its very long but
    slender ovipositor which is used for boring into wood and inserting eggs. [17] The smallest wasps
    are solitary chalcid wasps in the family Mymaridae, including the world's smallest known
    insect, Dicopomorpha echmepterygis (139 micrometres long) and Kikiki huna with a body length
    of only 158 micrometres, the smallest known flying insect.[18]
    There are estimated to be 100,000 species of ichneumonoid wasps in the
    families Braconidae and Ichneumonidae. These are almost exclusively parasitoids, mostly
    utilising other insects as hosts. Another family, the Pompilidae, is a specialist parasitoid of
    spiders.[10] Some wasps are even parasitoids of parasitoids; the eggs of Euceros are laid
    beside lepidopteran larvae and the wasp larvae feed temporarily on their haemolymph, but if a
    parasitoid emerges from the host, the hyperparasites continue their life cycle inside the
    parasitoid.[19] Parasitoids maintain their extreme diversity through narrow specialism. In Peru, 18
    wasp species were found living on 14 fly species in only two species of Gurania climbing squash.
    [20][21]

    Megascolia procer, a giant solitary species from Java in the Scoliidae. This specimen's length is
    77mm and its wingspan is 115mm.[b][14]
     

    Megarhyssa macrurus, a parasitoid. The body of a female is 50mm long, with a c. 100mm
    ovipositor
     

    Tarantula hawk wasp dragging an orange-kneed tarantula to her burrow; it has the most painful
    sting of any wasp.[13]

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