Charmarajnagar (Karnataka): Researchers at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) have discovered a new species of wasp at Biligiriranga Hill in Yalandur Taluk of Chamarajanagar District. The wasp has been named 'Soliga ecarinata' after the indigenous community Soliga living in BR Hills and Male Mahadeshwara Hills in Chamarajanagar.
Sources said that the wasp specimens were collected by a team of entomologists at ATREE led by Dr. AP Ranjan and Dr. Priyadarshan Dharmarajan. Specimens were collected in dry, deciduous, evergreen and scrub forests of Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple Tiger Reserve in Karnataka using portable Malaise traps.
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The research was published in the European Journal of Taxonomy last year. What differentiates the new wasp from other members of the insects is that the insect is more attractive, colorful and characterized by absence of ridges in certain body regions. The new parasitic wasp belongs to Metopinae, a subfamily of Darwin's parasitic wasps.
The wasp belongs to the genera Gnathochorisis and Symplecis. Entomologists said that only two species of this subfamily have been found in India and this is the first insect found in South India. The Biligiriranga hill is at the confluence of the Eastern and Western Ghats rich in biological diversity. There are hundreds of species of flora, 120 species of ants, 120 species of butterflies, and about 105 species of dung beetles in Biligiri forest.
In the last one year, 10 species of insects have been found in the hills of Biligiriranga. A new species of lizard was also discovered just a few months ago.
