A comparison of the parasitoid wasp species richness of tropical forest sites in Peru and Uganda – subfamily Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae)
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Abstract
The global distribution of parasitoid wasp species richness is poorly known. Past attempts to compare data from different sites have been hampered by small sample sizes and lack of standardisation. During the past decades, we have carried out long-term Malaise trapping using a standardised approach in the tropical forests of Peru (western Amazonia) and Uganda (eastern Africa). Here, we test how well such data can be used for global comparisons, by comparing the results for the subfamily Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). We found that more rhyssine species were caught in Peru than in Uganda, despite the Ugandan samples containing many more individuals both in absolute terms and per unit time. The difference in the number of individuals caught may largely be due to more rainfall in Peru, since rain reduces Malaise trap catches. Peruvian traps caught species at a faster rate (per individual caught) than Ugandan traps. We interpret this as a sign that the Peruvian sites have more species than the Ugandan site. Long-term, standardised Malaise trapping showed promise for global comparisons of species richness. Sampling more sites on both continents, and analysing all subfamilies, would give an estimate of which continent has more parasitoid wasp species. We suggest some refinements to the sampling design that would further improve sampling efficiency for future studies.
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Insect species richness and diversity comparisons between samples of the tropics around the world are rare, especially in taxa composed mainly of cryptic species as parasitoid wasps.
The article by Hopkins et al. (2024) compares samples of parasitoid wasps of the subfamily Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) collected by Malaise traps in tropical rainforests of Perú and Uganda. The samples presented several differences in the time of collecting, covertures, and the sampling number; however, they used the same kind of traps, and the taxonomic process for species delimitation was made for the same team of ichneumonid experts, using equivalent characters.
Publications about this kind of comparative study are difficult to find because cooperative projects on insect richness and diversity from South American and African continents are …
Insect species richness and diversity comparisons between samples of the tropics around the world are rare, especially in taxa composed mainly of cryptic species as parasitoid wasps.
The article by Hopkins et al. (2024) compares samples of parasitoid wasps of the subfamily Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) collected by Malaise traps in tropical rainforests of Perú and Uganda. The samples presented several differences in the time of collecting, covertures, and the sampling number; however, they used the same kind of traps, and the taxonomic process for species delimitation was made for the same team of ichneumonid experts, using equivalent characters.
Publications about this kind of comparative study are difficult to find because cooperative projects on insect richness and diversity from South American and African continents are not frequent. In this sense, this study presented a valuable contrast that shows interesting results about the higher richness and lower abundance of the biota of the American tropics, even with a small sample, in comparison with the biota of the African tropics. The results are supported mainly by the rarefaction curves shown. This pattern of higher species richness and lower specimen abundance, observed in other American tropical taxa such as trees, birds, or butterflies, is observed too in these parasitoid wasps, increasing the body of information that could support the extension of the pattern to the entire biota of the American tropics. The authors recognize the study's limitations, which include strong differences in the size of the forest coverture between places. However, these differences and others are enough described and discussed.
This work is useful because it increases the information about the diversity patterns of the tropics around the world and because study a taxon mainly composed of cryptic species, with a small amount of information in tropical regions.
References
Hopkins T., Tuomisto H., Gómez I.C., Sääksjärvi I. E. 2024. A comparison of the parasitoid wasp species richness of tropical forest sites in Peru and Uganda – subfamily Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae). bioRxiv, ver. 2 peer-reviewed and recommended by Peer Community in Zoology. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.08.23.554460
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