Leptopilina [SEP] parent taxon
Leptopilina
Leptopilina is a genus of parasitoid wasp in the family Figitidae. The genus is best known for the three Drosophila parasitoids "Leptopilina boulardi", "Leptopilina heterotoma" and "Leptopilina clavipes," used to study host-parasite immune interactions. The venom released by L. heterotoma during oviposition contains virus-like particles that delay host larval development and suppress the host cellular immune response. There is no evidence that these virus-like particles are the products of viral DNA as described in other parasitoid taxa, .
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of