Losgna Occidentalis: Rediscovery
A recent study published in Zootaxa, a peer-reviewed scientific journal for animal taxonomists, pointed out the rediscovery of the Losgna genus in India, after close to six decades.
- Losgna Occidentalis was discovered from an urban dry scrub forest.
- It belongs to a parasitic wasp (family Ichneumonidae), a group known for laying eggs inside or on other arthropod hosts.
- Prior to this discovery, Losgna had not been recorded in India since Heinrich’s 1965 monograph. No records, specimens or published literature on Losgna existed in any Indian institution after 1965.
- It appeared that the genus had vanished entirely from its once‐documented range in northeast India
- Researched named the new species ‘Losgna occidentalis’ because it represents the westernmost known occurrence of the genus: prior records came exclusively from tropical forests of eastern India and adjacent regions of Southeast Asia.
- At present only existing specimens of any Losgna species are those preserved at the Natural History Museum, London.
