Review of "Karyotypes of Parasitic Hymenoptera" by Vladimir E. Gokhman

Review of Gokhman VE: Karyotypes of Parasitic Hymenoptera Book details Gokhman VE: Karyotypes of Parasitic Hymenoptera Springer; 2009:183. ISBN 978-1-4020-9807-9 Review This book is principally the summary of a large body of work, spanning nearly 25 years, by Vladimir Gokhman [1]. He has carved a niche in karyology of parasitoid wasps and this book has much to offer in the way of chromosome data. The findings are explicitly linked to phylogenetic hypotheses and we are presented with some interesting theories about the evolution of chromosome form and number within the Hymenoptera. Within the insect order Hymenoptera more has been published on the aculeate, i.e. stinging, ants, bees and wasps. Gokhman summarises this information in an extensive introduction. In fact, so much information is provided on the aculeates and the plant-feeding sawflies that I am not really sure why the title of the book is restricted to parasitic [sic] Hymenoptera. Nevertheless, the principal interest of the author lies with the parasitoid wasps, those species that develop at the expense of another insect host, sometimes with very intimate physiological interactions. Throughout the book (including the title), these wasps are referred to as 'parasitic Hymenoptera'. I dislike the term 'parasitic' when applied to these insects when 'parasitoid' is a much more informative term and draws attention to the fact that they are not classic parasites but are more like highly specialised predators. Anyway, there are many interesting facts to be gleaned, such as that haploid chromosome numbers for just one family, the ants (Formicidae) range from 1 to 60. You may be interested to know that the large clade of 'microhymenoptera', generally tiny species of parasitoid wasps, have a much reduced chromosome set compared to their larger relatives. Given the taxonomically restricted scope of the book, presumably it is intended mainly to be read by hymenopterists, rather than cytogeneticists. Given this readership, it is a shame that there is very little in the way of explanation or, especially, illustration of karyological terms and features. But what are the main uses of the book? As the author states, although there are distinct, phylogenetically informative differences in modal numbers of chromosomes, it is difficult to define clades on discrete karyological characters, so the phylogenetic utility of such data seems limited. We still know far too little about the karyotypes of various small, enigmatic groups to be able to say anything meaningful about karyotype evolution in the early diversification of the parasitoid wasps. A large portion of the book is devoted to phylogenetic trends in karyotype, but the phylogenetic hypotheses are not derived from chromosome data. The phylogenies used are often not particularly robust. I see the more interesting results of karyological work being at the taxonomic level. The last chapter of the book details the species-level taxonomic insights that have resulted from the author's karyological Published: 13 August 2009 Parasites & Vectors 2009, 2:37 doi:10.1186/1756-3305-2-37 Received: 3 August 2009 Accepted: 13 August 2009 This article is available from: http://www.parasitesandvectors.com/content/2/1/37 © 2009 Broad; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.