Invited by Dr Alexery Reshchikov at Institute of Eastern Himalayas Research, Dr. Chen Huayan from Sun Yat-sen University, and C.van Achterberg, a professor at Zhejiang University and an honorary researcher at the Dutch Center for Natural Biodiversity, presented their projects on December 3rd, 2019: "Systematics and Taxonomic Research on the Family Limonidae in China" and "Cocoonidae: A Review of Fifty Years' Research." Dr. Chen Huayan spoke on the Limonidae with more than 4,000 species, the parasitic wasp with small body size and simple wing vein. He focused on Spodoptera frugiperda, a parasitic invasive species, as an example to discuss a great potential application of this group to biological control through the work parasitizing bottom eggs and following hosts. Dr. Chen also introduced his research on the phylogenic research on the species by using new genome technology to solve the problem of unclear evolutionary tree, and demonstrate the evolution development of its host, the existence of hidden species, and its adaptation to high altitude.  Professor C.van Achterberg's report was on evolutionary development of the family Cocoonidae with more than 50,000 species. This is a small parasitic wasp originated in Cretaceous and is about 2 to 8 mm long. The very interesting part of his talk was on the evolutionary convergence in morphology and molecule accompanied through the studies of multiple evolutions of ectoparasitism and endoparasitism. He also focused on the explaining of the parasitic strategies of this family, such as how to use viruses to destroy the host's immune system and various spawning strategies. Following up their reports, we discussed some issues on their life history, taxonomic research methods and future research directions of parasitic wasps. We have reached the agreements on conducting the collaborative research between the institute and universities to explore and solve insect orientation problems. (source：admin) |