Egg parasitoids from the subfamily Scelioninae (Hymenoptera: Platygastridae) in irrigated rice ecosystems across varied elevational ranges in southern India.

Platygastridae (Hymenoptera) is the most abundant family of parasitic Hymenoptera in rice ecosystems in southern India.  Members belonging to the subfamily Scelioninae were assessed in rice ecosystems along three elevation ranges, a highland (737m), midland (54m) and lowland (1.5m) in northcentral Kerala (southern India) during the pre-flowering to the milky-grain stage of paddy.  Malaise traps were employed as the standard specimen collection methodology with collections made for four weeks, using two malaise traps per field, from August 2008 to January 2009, serviced once a week. The study recorded a total of 198 individuals belonging to 38 species in 21 genera. The species diversity, richness, evenness as well as beta diversity were computed for the three sites along with ANOVA and it was concluded that, contrary to other studies on different taxa, elevation did not have any major effect on the overall diversity patterns in Platygastridae even though there was a difference in species assemblages.