Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Family Ichneumonidae Scientific name Mesoleptus hibernica | Phylum Arthropoda Order Hymenoptera Subfamily Cryptinae Rank Species | |
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Mesoleptus hibernica is a species of parasitic wasp that was discovered by Dr. Chris Williams, in County Mayo, when he was waiting for marsh flies to hatch in jam jars on his desk. Instead of flies, two wasp species emerged. Scientists from Italy, Finland and the United Kingdom identified the species. Mesoleptus hibernica females lay their eggs in fly larvae and when the eggs hatch, the wasps eat the larvae. It was the first parasitic wasp species that was discovered in Ireland that was new to science. It was named after the ancient Latin name of the country, Hibernia.
References
Mesoleptus hibernica Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA