The Ichneumonoidea is a vast and important superfamily of parasitic
wasps, with some 60,000 described species and estimated numbers far
higher, especially for small-bodied tropical taxa. The superfamily
comprises two cosmopolitan families - Braconidae and Ichneumonidae
- that have largely attracted separate groups of researchers, and
this, to a considerable extent, has meant that understanding of
their adaptive features has often been considered in isolation.
This book considers both families, highlighting similarities and
differences in their adaptations. The classification of the whole
of the Ichneumonoidea, along with most other insect orders, has
been plagued by typology whereby undue importance has been
attributed to particular characters in defining groups. Typology is
a common disease of traditional taxonomy such that, until recently,
quite a lot of taxa have been associated with the wrong higher
clades. The sheer size of the group, and until the last 30 or so
years, lack of accessible identification materials, has been a
further impediment to research on all but a handful of lab rat
species usually cultured initially because of their potential in
biological control. New evidence, largely in the form of molecular
data, have shown that many morphological, behavioural,
physiological and anatomical characters associated with basic life
history features, specifically whether wasps are ecto- or
endoparasitic, or idiobiont or koinobiont, can be grossly
misleading in terms of the phylogeny they suggest. This book shows
how, with better supported phylogenetic hypotheses entomologists
can understand far more about the ways natural selection is acting
upon them. This new book also focuses on this superfamily with
which the author has great familiarity and provides a detailed
coverage of each subfamily, emphasising anatomy, taxonomy and
systematics, biology, as well as pointing out the importance and
research potential of each group. Fossil taxa are included and it
also has sections on biogeography, global species richness,
culturing and rearing and preparing specimens for taxonomic study.
The book highlights areas where research might be particularly
rewarding and suggests systems/groups that need investigation. The
author provides a large compendium of references to original
research on each group. This book is an essential workmate for all
postgraduates and researchers working on ichneumonoid or other
parasitic wasps worldwide. It will stand as a reference book for a
good number of years, and while rapid advances in various fields
such as genomics and host physiological interactions will lead to
new information, as an overall synthesis of the current state it
will stay relevant for a long time.
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