Ichneumonidae
Wood wasp wasp ( Rhyssa persuasoria ) when pierced a spruce trunk in which they on the host larvae (wood wasp larvae ) examined
The parasitic wasps ( Ichneumonidae ) form in Central Europe, the most species-rich family of the Hymenoptera and also the largest species among the parasitoid Hymenoptera. Occasionally the name " parasitic wasps " used as a term for the lifestyle that not only possess the Ichneumonidae, but also other Legimmen, hence they are called the Ichneumonidae also "Real parasitic wasps " or " parasitic wasps in the strict sense."
The domestic in coniferous forests throughout Europe wood wasp wasp Rhyssa persuasoria achieved with about 5 centimeters ( plus ever again about as much for ovipositor and probe) a considerable body length.
Way of life
Are parasitized holometabole insects, most butterflies, sawflies, beetles and a few specialized forms parasitize in spinning cocoons, where they feed on the spider eggs, or as ectoparasites on the spider itself Hemimetabole insects, however, are by current knowledge of this family spared (but not some of the jewel wasps, which are among the parasitic wasps in the broader sense ).
The parasitism by the Ichneumonidae can be high values of more than 50 percent up to 80 percent and even 90 percent in the field, especially in mass development of the host species. This act, the parasitic wasps as a very important antagonists of many pest species and keep their populations in a natural way within limits.
Some Ichneumonidae species possess an endogenous viral vector of the family of Polydnaviridae, which is formed only in the Calyxzellen the ovaries of the wasp and changed after co-injection with the descendants of the metabolism, the immune response and the behavior of the host.
Subfamilies
- Lycorininae
- Orthopelmatinae
- Orthocentrinae
- Tersilochinae
- Microleptinae
- Mesochorinae
- Xoridinae
- Acaenitinae
- Ophioninae
- Anomaloninae
- Crema Tinae
- Porizontinae
- Diplazontinae
- Metopiinae
- Scolobatinae
- Tryphoninae
- Banchinae
- Ephialtinae ( = Pimplinae )
- Cryptinae ( = Gelinae )
- Ichneumoninae
Some species
- Sickle wasp ( Ophion luteus )
- Giant wood wasp wasp ( Rhyssa persuasoria )
- Ephialtes manifestator
- Zangenbock - wasp ( Dolichomitus dux )
- Giant wasp ( Protichneumon pisorius )
- Amblyteles armatorius
- Latibulus argiolus
- Ichneumon Eumerus
- Tersilochus obscurator
Economic Importance
Parasitic wasps have economic importance in the control of unwanted insects to humans; this is, however, difficult to quantify. Some parasitic wasps species are grown commercially and used in biological pest control, eg for the control of food moths or leek moth.
Literary significance
In ancient China, people believed that parasitic wasps do not have a boy, but turn tracked in parasitic wasps. This supposed power of transformation appears repeatedly in philosophical and literary works. For example, in the book of Zhuangzi's book XIII of the true Nanhua.
Under the name of Ichneumon ( " detection instruments " ) described in Aristotle's Historia animalium an insect: " The wasps but which are called ichneumons that are smaller than the other, kill the spiders, drag the bodies into old ruined walls, or other perforated body and cover the hole with clay, but it caused the noticeable end wasps ". This position was taken over by the Roman Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia. It is likely that Linnaeus this text was known, as he knew a parasitic wasp with this name ( the genus Ichneumon in the new sense but actually parasitized in butterflies ).
The same name is also referred to in Ancient Greek, an Egyptian civet ( Herpestes ichneumon, see ichneumon ), which should crawl the sleeping crocodile in his mouth and chew him out of here, the heart according to the ancient tradition ( Aristotle, too).
The apparent cruelty of life (including the cannibalism among larvae) of Ichneumonidae from a human perspective employed in the 19th century philosophers, scientists and theologians, because this way of life is incompatible with the existence of a good and engaging God's ( theodicy ). Charles Darwin was the example of the Ichneumonidae so disturbing that it was his doubts about the existence of a Creator reinforced, as he wrote in a letter to the American naturalist Asa Gray in 1860:
" I own I can not see as plainly did as others do, and as I shoulderstand wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There Seems to me too much misery in the world. I can not persuade myself did a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of Their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or did a cat shoulderstand play with mice. "
I can not as easy as others to understand the evidence for a purposeful creation and goodwill on all sides, even if I should wish it to me. It seems too much misery in the world to me. I can not convince myself that a benevolent and omnipotent God would have created the Ichneumonidae with the intention that they feed on the inside of caterpillars, or that a cat with mice play.