New Wasp Species Discovered in Costa Rica

Costa Rica reveals astonishing biodiversity of braconid wasps, with 277 new species of the tribe Heterospilini described in the latest special issue of the open access journal ZooKeys.

This is the second part of an extensive two-part study of the braconid subfamily Doryctinae from Costa Rica. Authors Paul M. Marsh, Alexander L. Wild, and James B. Whitfield describe a total of 286 species of wasps within the tribe, but reveal a possibility of additional 50-100 species to be added to the counts.

“If the numerous unplaced species in the unsorted specimens we have looked at are added to the above figures, the enormous diversity of this genus in such a small locality becomes obvious,” explained Dr Marsh. “We estimate that perhaps another 50-100 species could be added to the total to contribute to the astonishing biodiversity of Costa Rica.”

This study is remarkable in one more way, being the first large monograph incorporating hundreds of species to be automatically registered on ZooBank as a part of an innovative workflow implemented for the first time in zoology by ZooKeys. Why is this important? The automated registration saves many hours of manual work and reduces the risks of human mistakes in the data transfer.

Source: ESA