Kolkata: A new wasp (‘bolta’) species discovered in Rajarhat by a team of Kalyani University and Cairo University scientists and research scholars has been named after award-winning cartoonist and creator of ‘Batul’ and ‘Nonte-Phonte’, Narayan Debnath.The new species of parasitoid wasp, Tetrastichus narayandebnathi, is associated with a tortoise beetle. A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life cycle attached to or inside a single host organism, which it ultimately consumes and kills.“The wasp represents a significant addition to the region’s urban entomology. Out of nearly 500 valid Tetrastichus species globally, this discovery marks only the third documented instance worldwide of this genus,” said Arnob Chakrovorty, university research scholar, cytogenetics and molecular biology laboratory, dept of zoology, University of Kalyani, one of the authors of the paper that has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Tropical Insect Science, Springer Nature.A genus is a taxonomic rank used in biological classification to group closely related species.Asked about naming it after Debnath, Chakrovorty said: “Debnath was a legendary artist and writer who reshaped Bengali popular culture, making the childhood of generations of Bengali kids truly wonderful, magical and memorable. Scientists who are behind such discoveries reserve the right to name the species. We decided to name it after Debnath as our tribute to the artist,” said Chakrovorty.He has co-authored the paper with Neveen S Gadallah, entomology dept, faculty of science, Cairo University, and Banani Bhattacharjee, also from dept of zoology, University of Kalyani. Chakrovorty is also founder of city-based iForNature – Nature Club.Chakrovorty said the new species has been recorded as a gregarious primary parasitoid of a tortoise beetle pupa. “Not only the third account of the genus Tetrastichus Haliday, 1844, as a parasitoid of Cassidinae (a sub-family of leaf beetles), it’s only the second report from India among 86 valid Indian species,” he added.“It closely resembles T. tunicus Narendran, 1989, but differs in body morphometrics, leg coloration and hypopygium length,” he added.A single tortoise beetle pupa, he said, was collected from a grass blade, due to its distinct different coloration (dark yellowish-orange colour) compared to other cocoons in the study area. The identification of the pupa was confirmed by Prof Jolanta Świętojańska (University of Wrocław, Poland). The pupa was maintained in an insect housing cabinet under optimal temperature and humidity conditions at iForNature – Nature Club research laboratory.“Eight parasitoids emerged from the pupa, comprising five females and three males. All specimens were collected and mounted on acid-free cards for morphological examination and further studies. Generic identification was confirmed with the help of Christer Hansson, Lund University, Sweden. For species-level identification, Narendran (2007) and Hansson & Schmidt (2020) were consulted,” added Chakrovorty.
