Morphological Identification of Hymenopteran Parasitoids

Hymenoptera is a very diverse insect order, including a variety of insects such as ants, bees and wasps. Wasps are unique in their lifestyles relative to other hymenopterans, but they have not received as much recognition as ants and bees. They inhabit all ice-free environments on earth in a wide range of ecological niches and play diverse roles such as pollinators, predators, parasitoids or parasitic wasps, plant feeders, and solitary and social species. Surveys were carried out in different districts viz., Shivamogga, Davangere and Chitradurga of Karnataka and collected hymenopteran parasitoids parasitizing insect pests attacking different crop ecosystems. The morphological identification resulted in 42 hymenopteran parasitoid species which belonged to 12 families viz., Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, Eulophidae, Encyrtidae, Scelionidae, Eurytomidae, Chalcididae, Signiphoridae, Aphelinidae, Trichogrammatidae, Proctutropidae and Pteromalidae comprising of 33 genera.