Boletín de la AeE

The parasitic wasp family Encyrtidae at present includes approximately 3,500 described species. but the number occurring in the world is likely to be more than lOx that number. All species are parasitoids. but they are known to attack at least 153 insect families and 8 families of other arthropods. About 250 species of encyrtids have been used in biocontrol programmes involving nearly 150 pest species, over half of these coccoids. The aim of the study in Costa Rica is to provide a complete, in depth systematic study of the Encyrtidae of Costa Rica, the first of its kind for any group of microhymenoptera in any tropical área of the world. The work will provide a means of identifying all species occurring in the country. logether with a summary of their known worldwide distributions. host relationships and taxonomy.

When completed the study will also provide data for comparative biodiversity studies since it will allow direct comparison of the encyrtid fauna of Cost Rica with températe áreas of the world such as the UK. This is of interest because evidence seems to indícate that at least one group of parasitic Hymenoptera, the Ichneumonidae. does not become more diverse with decreasing latitude. The same does not seem to be true of encyrtids. Analysis of random sweep-net samples in vari o us paits of the world show a strong correlation between increasing encyrtid diversity and a decreasing in latitude.

Sampling has been undeitaken using a network DEBEN PEDEFEOFEEFFDCACABN is in its early days but examination of more than 30.000 specimens shows that the fauna is veiy diverse with at least 125 genera and 1,000 species occurring in Costa Rica with at least 85% of these species being new to science. This compares with the UK fauna of 75 genera and 205 species for a land área of nearly fíve times that of Costa Rica. Many Costa Rican species also have a very wide distribution within the Neotropics, the New World or even Europe. For instance at least two species found in Costa Rica are also found in the UK. viz. Copidosomafloridanum (Ashmead) and Prionomitus miimtus (Dalman).