Ichneumon Wasps are a group of highly specialized solitary wasps that lay their eggs inside the bodies of other insects (or, more typically, the larvae of other insects). The Wasp larvae then hatches inside the host, whereupon it proceeds to eat the other insect from within, typically killing its host as it emerges. This is a highly successful, if rather gruesome, survival strategy, and their are over 60 000 described species of Ichneumon Wasps around the world.
In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 10 March 2013, Shu-Ping Sun and Mao-Ling Sheng of the General Station of Forest Pest Management of the Chinese State Forestry Administration describe a new species of Ichneumon Wasp from Benxi County in Liaoning.
The new species is placed in the genus Notopygus and given the specific name longiventris, meaning ‘long-bodied’. Notopygus longiventris is a 15 mm, elongate, black Ichneumon Wasp with brown and white markings. The species is described from a single female specimen caught in a trap.
Notopygus longiventris, female specimen in lateral view. Sun & Sheng (2014).
See also New species of Ichneumon Wasp from Columbia and New species of Ichneumon Wasp from Jalisco State in central Mexico.
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