Publications | Tapani Hopkins

As a general rule, my articles are open access. Click on the links and read what I’ve been up to!

Unfortunately, some articles are behind a paywall. I’ve tried to provide a preprint for these. (i.e. a draft version, but often very similar to the final article) There is also Sci-Hub.

Publications on Ugandan wasps

2024 A comparison of the parasitoid wasp species richness of tropical forest sites in Peru and Uganda – subfamily Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae)

Where are there more species (of Rhyssine wasps)? Uganda or Peru? Our South American site won, but plenty of species in both places – and more species remain to be discovered!

2021 Deducing how tropical rhyssines (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) mate from body measurements

Do male tropical wasps mob the female, or is the mating carried out in a more civilised fashion? We measured the bodies of several Ugandan and Peruvian species to find out.

2021 On the parasitoid wasps of the African tropical forest – and how their species richness compares to Amazonia

My PhD thesis. What did I do in Uganda and what are the results up to now? Confusingly, there are two online versions: online and online with preprint. I recommend the latter since it has the articles, not just the introduction.

2019 Extensive sampling and thorough taxonomic assessment of Afrotropical Rhyssinae (Hymenoptera, Ichneumonidae) reveals two new species and demonstrates the limitations of previous sampling efforts

What rhyssine wasps live in Africa? We described two new Ugandan species, and increased the number of known African specimens by 1300%. Photos of all African species!

2019 Extensive sampling reveals the phenology and habitat use of Afrotropical parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae: Rhyssinae)

Where and when do tropical wasps fly? The first results of our Uganda 2014–2015 survey. We found that rhyssine wasps fly in dry weather near decaying wood.

2018 Assessing the Species Richness of Afrotropical Ichneumonid Wasps with Randomly Placed Traps Provides Ecologically Informative Data

Can you sample tropical wasps with randomly placed traps? We placed 30 traps for a year in the Ugandan rainforest, and answered “yes, if you don’t want a large sample size”. This study led to our later 2014-2015 sampling, which caught considerably more wasps. Preprint

Other publications

2024 Ramp traps versus pitfall traps for collecting epigeal arthropods: a case study in a coniferous forest in Southwest Finland

Catch arthropods with pitfall traps, or try ramp traps instead? We tested both side by side. Both worked, but some differences in what they catch.

2022 New national and regional biological records for Finland 10. Contributions to Bryophyta and Marchantiophyta 9

We went through the mosses and liverworts reported to the biodiversity information facility, and checked which are new to Finland or to a biogeographic province. This time our computer helped out.

2022 DNA barcodes on their own are not enough to describe a species

It’s been suggested that new species could be described based (almost) only on their DNA barcodes, and the other parts of a normal description be skipped. We explain why we don’t think this is a good idea.

2017 Higher Predation Risk for Insect Prey at Low Latitudes and Elevations

How strong is predation in different parts of the world? Do you get higher predation rates in the tropical lowlands, where species richness is highest? We spread dummy caterpillars around the world and found out.

2013 Indirect interactions in the High Arctic

What does a Greenland food web look like? Are there any indirect interactions (e.g. ‘apparent competition’)? We described a quantitative food web that included caterpillars, their food plants, and the parasitoids and predators that eat them.

2012 An extended food web from Greenland – adding birds, spiders and plants to a parasitoid-lepidopteran web

My MSc thesis. I expanded a Greenland parasitoid-host food web to cover predation and herbivory. Data Raw data

What is Sci-Hub?

Sci-Hub is a really useful website which downloads paywalled papers for you. Just give it the web address, it’ll get you the PDF. It’s free, legal to use (in Finland at least), and used by academics all over the world*.

However, it is also controversial. If you download a paper via Sci-Hub, publishers do not get paid. Many feel that serves publishers right, but you’ll want to make up your own mind.