Tetrastichus narayandebnathi:
A new wasp (‘bolta’) species named Tetrastichus narayandebnathi was recently discovered in Rajarhat.
- Tetrastichus narayandebnathi is a new species of parasitoid wasp.
- It was discovered in the Rajarhat region of West Bengal.
- It has been named after award-winning cartoonist and creator of ‘Batul’ and ‘Nonte-Phonte’, Narayan Debnath.
- It has been recorded as a gregarious primary parasitoid of a tortoise beetle pupa.
- A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life cycle attached to or inside a single host organism, which it ultimately consumes and kills.
- Not only the third account of the genus Tetrastichus Haliday, 1844, as a parasitoid of Cassidinae (a subfamily of leaf beetles), but it’s also the second report from India among 86 valid Indian species.
