TAENIOGONALOS DEEPAKI

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Picture Courtesy: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/new-species-parasitoid-wasp-discovered-in-western-ghats/article67925337.ece

Context: Scientists from the Ashok Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE) have discovered a new species of parasitoid wasp in the Western Ghats. The new species was named Taeniogonalos deepaki.

About Taeniogonalos Deepaki

• It is a new wasp species discovered in the Western Ghats by a team of entomologists working in the Belgaum district of Karnataka.
• The new wasp species was named “Taeniogonalos deepaki” in honour of Deepak Deshpande, this is a common practice of classification, where the new species are named after the person who discovered them, contributed significantly to their study, or someone else whom observers want to honour other birds of prey.
• It belongs to the family Trigonalyidae, which includes parasites – growing insects that live in another organism. Among parasites, there is a subgroup called hyperparasites, known as the spies of the insect world, because they invade other parasites.
• Taeniogonalous wasp lay their eggs in the body of another wasp larva.
• The discovery of Taeniogonalos deepaki adds to the existing population of seven species of Taeniogonalos known in India.