Bengaluru

Tribal bond: From the hilly terrains, comes Soliga wasp

Express News Service

BENGALURU:  The entomologists and researchers from Ashoka Trust in Ecology and the Environment (Atree) have discovered a new wasp parasite species, which will be named after the Soliga tribals for their stewardship. 

The species is found in the deciduous patches of BRT Tiger Reserve. The researchers have described the new wasp- Soliga ecarinata (in picture)- as they are different from other wasps in appearance and taxonomy. 

Dr Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, the senior fellow at Atree and one of the researchers, who found the species, told TNIE that the new species does not have ridges on its body compared to others in the same family, which explains its name ecarinata. It is bright and easy to identify, he added. 

These specimens were collected 15 years earlier, as a part of Atree’s Western Ghats Insect Inventory Programme while additional specimens were collected from the secondary wet forest habitat of Nagaland. This new wasp belongs to the subfamily Metopiinae of Darwin wasps family Ichneumonidae, and the new discovery was published in the European Journal of Taxonomy. 

This is the second genus of this subfamily reported from India and the first from South India, Rajan said. 
He recollected that while samples were being collected, one of the tribals told him to leave some of the insects behind as the forests also needed them. Since the Soligas strongly follow the rule of sustainability, it was decided that the new species will be named after them.

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