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Issue: Vol. 5493 No. 5: 14 Aug. 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-08-14
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5493.5.5
Page range: 561-576
Abstract views: 55
PDF downloaded: 1

Morphology, biology and phylogeny of Xenos gadagkari sp.nov. (Strepsiptera: Xenidae): an endoparasite of Polistes wattii (Hymenoptera: Vespidae)

Department of Zoology; Panjab University; Chandigarh; India
Department of Biological Sciences; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER Mohali); Knowledge City; Sector 81; SAS Nagar; Mohali; Punjab; India 140306
Department of Biological Sciences; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER Mohali); Knowledge City; Sector 81; SAS Nagar; Mohali; Punjab; India 140306
PG Department of Zoology; Sri Guru Gobind Singh College; Sector 26; Chandigarh; India
Hymenoptera Neotenic female twisted winged parasite Host-parasite association new species

Abstract

We report the morphology, biology and phylogeny of a new strepsipteran endoparasitic species: Xenos gadagkari, which stylopises the primitively eusocial wasp Polistes wattii from Punjab, India. We report a high abundance of the endoparasite in P. wattii population of our study area and provide the morphological description of adult males, male puparium and neotenic females. This species is sufficiently different from other species of Xenos reported from social wasps and therefore, constitutes a new species, X. gadagkari Sen and Nain, sp. nov. Although there are a few reports of strepsipteran parasitoids from India, this is the first confirmed report with a description of a Xenos species from the Indian population of P. wattii. Our findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge on Xenos and provide a foundation for future behavioural, microbial and molecular studies on this enigmatic group of insects.

 

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