A new species of wasp, a winged insect named 'Taeniogonalus dhritia', has been discovered in the Western Ghats hill section of Kerala.

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India have discovered a new species of wasp, a winged insect, in the Western Ghats hill section of Kerala. The new species is Taeniogonalus dhritia, named after ZSI director Dhriti Banerjee. ZSI Director Dhriti Banerjee told PTI here that a new species, Taeniogonalus dhritia, has been discovered in the Ranipuram Hills region. This species is named after the famous entomologist Dr. Dhriti Banerjee. Conducted by scientists P Girish Kumar and VD Hegde of the Western Ghats Regional Centre, ZSI, Kozhikode, the research work was published in the latest issue of the international journal 'Zootaxa'. Taeniogonalus dhritia is a species of plant in the family Trigonalidae. He said, while there are about 122 described species of Trigonalidae in 16 genera worldwide, information about the Indian Trigonalidae is very poor and there are only eight described species to date. These insects are hyperparasitoids (parasites of wasps) where the females lay eggs on other parasitic wasps. The Trigonalidae family is found in abundance in Europe, North Africa and parts of Asia.