A new species of wasp that uses the damselfly for reproduction was recently identified in New Taipei City by a National Taiwan University entomology research team.
The team discovered that Hydrophylita emporos, a type of tiny wasp measuring 1.1 to 1.2 millimeters in length, will attach itself to the base of a damselfly’s abdomen. Once the damselfly begins laying eggs on leaves floating on the water’s surface, the wasp parasitizes them.
Team leader Shih Yuan-tung, a doctoral student at NTU Department and Graduate Institute of Entomology, said the finding is significant as there have been hypotheses worldwide over the past century that damselflies may be hosts to parasitic wasps, but there was no evidence.
According to Shih, studies on the insect began two years ago when Lin Sue-cheng, an assistant research fellow at the Endemic Species Research Institute under the ROC Council of Agriculture, found an unknown wasp attached to the abdomen of a damselfly in New Taipei City’s Shimen District.
The study, “Hydrophylita (Lutzimicron) emporos Shih & Polaszek (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae) from Taiwan, Parasitising Eggs, and Phoretic on Adults, of the Damselfly Psolodesmus mandarinus mandarinus (Zygoptera: Calopterygidae),” was published in the July issue of world-renowned biology journal Plos One. (KML-JSM)
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