The parasitic Hymenoptera are a highly successful and important group of insects comprising probably over a million species. Despite the vast amount of research that has been carried out on the group over the last 100 years or so, there are still many unexplained aspects of their biology. In recent years interest in the parasitic Hymenoptera has grown as a result of the increasing demand for biological methods for pest control and their possible use as natural enemies. Parasitic wasps are also tremendously important in research on pollution dynamics and on host-parasite interactions.
In...

Insects are not dinosaurs and they probably pose us more strange ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS puzzles and unexpected questions. A million extant species, that is sev- For A. P. Rasnitsyn, preparing of various parts of this book was s- eral times more than all other living taxa together, is still a very c- ported in part by grants: by the International Science Foundation, by servative estimate, and their real number is for sure many times more. the Leverhulme Trust to D. L. J. Quicke and M. G. Fitton; by the Royal They are incomparably diverse in terms of their size, structure and way Society Joint...