Phasgonophora sp. (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Chalcididae: Phasgonophorinae)
Phasgonophorinae is a small subfamily of parasitoid wasps with 66 described species. Until recently (2020) they were placed in the subfamily Brachymeriinae but recent molecular work has elevated them to subfamily status. The type genus, Phasgonophora, includes 38 described species. To date, only four species have been described from continental Africa. Adult wasps have rasp-like sculpture on the pro- and mesonotum, easily seen in the accompanying image. As one of the beneficial insects, Phasgonophora are parasitoids of xylophagous (wood-eating) beetles representing at least four beetle families. A recent study suggests that a species of Phasgonophora may be of use in the biological control of Agrilus planipennis, the emerald ash borer. This species is an important, invasive pest from the family Buprestidae, the metallic wood-boring beetles. High parasitism rates were reported on A. planipennis that has already killed millions of ash trees in the forests of Canada and the USA.
The genus Phasgonophora was described by John Obadiah Westwood (1805-1893). He and his close friend Fredrick William Hope were founding members of the Entomological Society of London. Hope had amassed a huge insect collection and donated outright the now famous “Hope collection” to Oxford University with the provision that Westwood was to be appointed curator of the collection (currently grown to over 5 million specimens). Later, Hope endowed a professorship in Entomology (also at Oxford) with the same provision and in1861 Westwood became the first Hope Professor of Entomology.
Although Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published to great acclaim in 1859 and was already in its 3rd edition just as Westwood began his professorship in 1861, both he and Hope refused to accept Darwin’s (and Wallace’s) theory of evolution by natural selection. Westwood and Hope were Natural Theologians, embracing the idea that knowledge of God could be approached by the study of natural history without religious revelation.
Incidentally, online there is a very nice website of the Linda Hall Library (in Kansas City, Missouri, USA) that hosts a web page featuring the Scientist of the Day with images and a short biography of those scientists. Hope was the scientist of the day for 3 January 2017. Have a look. https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/frederick-hope/
A note: Edward Bagnall Poulton, an English entomologist and evolutionary zoologist, became the 2nd Hope Professor of Zoology at Oxford, following Westwood. Unlike Westwood and Hope, Poulton embraced Darwinism and actively supported the theory of evolution by natural selection. He held the professorship for a half a century. Poulton had an even more famous son, Ronald, who was an international Rugby player “of uncommon skill”. Ronald was killed in Flanders in 1915 during the 1st World War.
Credits: Dr Robert Copeland