Integrative Taxonomy and Its Implications for Species-Level Systematics of Parasitoid Hymenoptera

Abstract

This review deals with integrative taxonomy of parasitoid Hymenoptera, i.e., a complex of approaches and techniques aimed at detection, delimitation, and description of closely related species of these insects. The current state and prospects of integrative taxonomy, as well as its implications for species-level parasitoid systematics, are reviewed. The increasing significance of molecular, chromosomal, and other modern techniques for detection and description of new species of parasitoid wasps is shown. The morphological study of parasitoid Hymenoptera is considered an important but by no means decisive stage of analysis of their taxonomic diversity. In particular, each of the revealed morphospecies can be subjected to a thorough study aiming at detection of cryptic taxa using modern techniques.