Antique engraved illustration of the ichneumon wasp. Vintage illustration of the Darwin wasp. Old engraved picture of the ichneumonid. Book illustrati
Antique engraved illustration of the ichneumon wasp. Vintage illustration of the Darwin wasp. Old engraved picture of the ichneumonid. Book illustration published 1907. The Ichneumonidae, also known as the ichneumon wasps, Darwin wasps, or ichneumonids, are a family of parasitoid wasps of 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. The distribution of the ichneumonids was traditionally considered an exception to the common latitudinal gradient in species diversity, since the family was thought to be at its most species-rich in the temperate zone instead of the tropics, but numerous new tropical species have now been discovered.
Size: 5606px × 3756px
Photo credit: © Panther Media / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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