We know too little about parasitoid wasp distributions to draw any conclusions about latitudinal trends in species richness, body size and biology.

PloS One
Donald L J Quicke

Abstract

Much has been written about latitudinal trends in parasitoid diversity and biology, though it is widely recognised that they are a comparatively poorly known group. Here I show that for both braconid and ichneumonid wasps there are highly significant relationships between body size and the mean recorded latitude of species. Numbers of species per genus (surrogates of clades) peaks in the temperate zone for both families contrasting with data from the virtually complete inventories for mammals, birds and monocot plants, suggesting massive under-description of tropical parasitoid faunas. If the ichneumonoids may be expected to show similar trends to mammals, birds and other groups, the implication is that taxonomic work both in terms of active generic revisions, but also likely, the collecting and processing of museum specimens, and selection of taxa for revision, is woefully inadequate to allow latitudinal patterns in biology to be analysed.

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Citations

Oct 5, 2012·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Anu VeijalainenIlari E Sääksjärvi
Jul 21, 2016·Current Opinion in Insect Science·John O Stireman
Dec 23, 2015·Ecology Letters·Peri Alexandra Mason
Aug 13, 2015·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Marla D Schwarzfeld, Felix A H Sperling
Oct 15, 2013·Molecular Ecology Resources·D C LeesC Lopez-Vaamonde
Aug 26, 2015·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Juanita RodriguezCarol D von Dohlen
Jun 12, 2019·Nature Ecology & Evolution·Colin J CarlsonShweta Bansal
Dec 21, 2016·PeerJ·István MikóAndrew Robert Deans
Nov 21, 2020·Current Biology : CB·Michael C OrrJohn S Ascher
Nov 19, 2020·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Colin J CarlsonAnna J Phillips

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
GAM

Software Mentioned

mgcv
R
Taxapad
GAM

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