New Parasitoid Wasp Species Discovered in South Korea
Seticornuta koreana. Photos by ZooKeys, CC BY 4.0.
A team of South Korean researchers has discovered a new species of parasitoid wasp in their country. The new wasp, which belongs to the genus Seticornuta, a group belonging to the subfamily Metopiinae, was named Seticornuta koreana after the country where it was found. It is described in the journal ZooKeys.
Parasitoid wasps reproduce by laying eggs in or on other living creatures — usually other insects — or their eggs. The Korean researchers do not yet know which insect or insects S. koreana parasitizes. Nor do they know the full extent of its range — the authors list the distribution as “South Korea,” but one has to assume that they are found in neighboring countries as well, since wasps have wings and do tend to travel.
Like most parasitoid wasps, S. koreana is tiny — about 11 millimeters long. It is closely related to another wasp in its genus, S. albopilosa, but can be distinguished by its antennae, which are entirely black (they are partially reddish-brown in S. albopilosa) and by a few other features.
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The question I have is, are these parasitoidal Apocrita beneficial parasitoids or are they hyperparasitoids (ultimately, harmful to humans)?
Neither parasitoid wasps, nor hyperparasitoids are harmful to humans. Hyperparasitoids are just wasps that parasitize other parasitoids, for example by laying eggs in their eggs.