''Quadrastichus erythrinae'' Kim, 2004, (quadra=four, stichus=line, erythrinae=of erythrina) is a small

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

wasp belonging to the family

Eulophidae The Eulophidae are a large family of hymenopteran insects, with over 4,300 described species in some 300 genera. The family includes the genus ''Elasmus'', which used to be treated as a separate family, "Elasmidae", and is now treated as a subf ...

, but also a secondary phytophage by way of inducing galls on the leaves, stems, petioles and young shoots of various ''

Erythrina ''Erythrina'' is a genus of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 130 species, which are distributed in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. They are trees, with the larger species growing up to in height. The generic na ...

'' species. ''Q. erythrinae'' was identified in 2004 in ''Erythrina'' galls collected in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

and

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

. ''Eurytoma'' is a genus of wasps belonging to the family

Eurytomidae The Eurytomidae are a family within the superfamily Chalcidoidea. Unlike most chalcidoids, the larvae of many are phytophagous (feeding in stems, seeds, or galls), while others are more typical parasitoids, though even then the hosts are usually ...

of which some are parasitoids of ''Quadrastichus'' species; a parasitoid from the Eulophidae is '' Aprostocetus exertus''. The worldwide spread of Erythrina gall wasp (EGW) stem from a location in

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

. Erythrina gall wasp have become an invasive species in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, overall threatening Hawaii's biodiversity. It was first observed on the island of

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

and later spread amongst other neighboring islands with major infestations on endemic ''

Erythrina sandwicensis Wiliwili (''Erythrina sandwicensis''), is a species of tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It is the only species of ''Erythrina'' that naturally occurs there. It is typically found in Hawaiian tropical dry ...

'' and introduced '' E. variegata''. It was then treated with parasitoid '' Eurytoma erythrinae'', which proved to be very effective in reducing the population of Erythrina gall wasps.

References

External links

''Quadrastichus erythrinae ''image
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5975927 Eulophidae