Context: A new genus of Braconid wasp has been named ‘Atree’, after the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), a leading research institution and environmental think tank based in Bengaluru.
This is said to be the first time in India that an institute has an eponymous insect genus.
The development comes with the discovery of a new species of wasp, Atree rajathae and two other already known species.
The newly described species is a parasitoid wasp.
An ATREE statement explained that parasitoids are the most important natural enemies of other insects, and humans exploit this behaviour for the biological control of crop pests.
