Saturday, April 18, 2015

REVIEW- Must have books for neotropical wasp identification

Books I have used for identifying wasps to families.

Hymenoptera of the World
Goulet and Huber
Is this kosher? Found a link online: Hymenoptera of the World

Good for beginners when you're identifying your specimens to families. This book has these beautiful, drawn pictures. Love the glossary in the beginning and love the gorgeous and detailed pictures of different families. Would just buy to look at the pictures.

An example page from Hymenoptera of the World

Hymenoptera of Costa Rica
Hanson and Gauld
Amazon link: Hymenoptera of Costa Rica

I just want to warn you. While this guide have pages dedicated to ants and bees, this guide focuses more on parasitoid wasps (as seen in the Amazon review). I have used the key to identify bee specimens to families with success though.

The book has actual photographs of the body parts (black and white) and hand drawn images as well. However, the dichotomous key references to pictures that are on different pages. Can be frustrating as you have to flip back and forth (not the case for Hymenoptera of the World) In my opinion, using this key was a bit faster. It was a lot more straightforward than the Hymenoptera of the World. Also if you're interested in any specimens belonging to the family Ichenumoidea, it goes in depth with like two pages dedicated to the venation on the forewings.

Suggestion:
Whichever you pick, they're both fantastic keys. I would lean a bit more for the Hymenoptera of the World, however.

What I used it for:
Parasitoid wasps in Mexico and in Puerto Rico.



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