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42 Potato Grower |NOVEMBER 2015 diggin' in ENTOMOLOGY By Jan Suszkiw, Agricultural Research Service | Photos by Matt Buffington Seeing the Difference New tool helps growers, researchers identify tiny wasps Determining the identity of parasitic wasps— some measuring less than a millimeter long—can be a time-consuming process that includes comparing their features to descriptions in published works and disparate specimen collections. And correct identification is critical, as these parasitic wasps lay their eggs inside other insect species, killing the host insect in the process. As a result, these wasps are used extensively worldwide to control pest insect populations in agriculture. Now, making such identifications could begin with the click of a mouse. An international team of researchers, including a scientist from the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), has published a new, online document called a monograph that will make it easier to identify and study wasps belonging to a group called the Cynipoidea. While these wasps are common worldwide, the monograph focuses on species from the Afrotropical region. This vast area, encompassing all of Africa south of the Sahara Desert, as well as the southern Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar and surrounding islands, is ripe for entomological discovery. The monograph uses pairs of interactive, image- based identification keys—including those of wing shape, body segmentation and other characteristics—to help users navigate to the correct genus or species of the wasp of interest, along with available biological, geographic and other information about the insect, including locations of existing specimens. "These wasps are critical components of natural and agricultural ecosystems, attacking the larval stages of pest flies, such leaf-mining flies and fruit flies," says Matt Buffington, a team member and A new online resource, co-authored by an ARS scientist, will make it easier to identify and study parasitic wasps, such as this Angustocorpa wasp from South Africa (about 2.5 millimeters long). A light microscope image of a wasp species of Leptopilina. Species in North America are being evaluated for biological control of spotted wing Drosophila flies. 42 Potato Grower |NOVEMBER 2015 0.5 mm 0.5 mm