author(s)
Shweta M, Rajmohana K

abstract
Ornamental lawns are a form of urban greenery. Even though urban green spaces are becoming common, studies on their insect communities, especially the cryptic and little known groups like parasitic hymenoptera are scarce. This study aimed to assess the guild of parasitic hymenoptera in lawns, an intensively managed urban ecosystem. Two lawns in Kozhikode district, Kerala were sampled for six months, using yellow pan traps (YPTs). 25 YPT samples were taken from each lawn every month, from December 2013 to May 2014. Identifications were upto morphospecies level. The superfamilies Platygastroidea and Chalcidoidea ranked top, and among the families the most diverse was Platygastridae. As per the functional group analysis, egg parasitoids were more abundant than pupal, larval, larval-pupal, nymphal and egg-larval parasitoids. Parasitoids with any of their life stages having a direct association with soil, tended to dominate in lawns. Plant-prey interactions, host-parasitoid relationships and functional group analysis are all important in understanding the ecosystem dynamics