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HYMENOPTEROUS PARASITOIDS

EUPELMIDAE

The vast majority of species of Eupelmidae are parasitic and facultatively hyperparasitic on the immature stages of other insects, with hosts recorded in the orders Lepidoptera, Homoptera, Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Neuroptera and Orthoptera. Eupelmus urozonus and Eupelmus vesicularis are examples of species which may develop as primary ectoparasitoids or as ectoparasitoids of a great range of other primary parasitoids (Muesebeck & Dohanian, 1927; Morris, 1938; Askew, 1961). A small number of species are predators on the eggs or larvae of various insects, or on the eggs of spiders. A few are solitary, primary endoparasitoids of eggs of Lepidoptera, Orthoptera and Hemiptera. Most eupelmids are solitary, but some species are gregarious. Most are ectoparasitoids, including some that develop gregariously on dipterous pupae within puparia. A few species are solitary endoparasitoids of Coccoidea. Species of Calosotinae are mostly parasitic on the larvae and pupae of xylophagous beetles, though a common North American species, Calosota metallica, is a common primary or secondary parasitoid of a variety of other insects living in grass stems (Burks, 1979).

See Phylogeny and Classification of Eupelmidae, with a revision of the World Genera of Calostinae and Metapelmatinae (Hymenoptera: CHalcidoidea) for keys to genera of these two (of (three) subfamilies.

All of the parasitoids and their associated host miners listed here occur in Britain (albeit in quaratine or glasshouses only). The associations themselves, however, may not be British.

21 Euplemidae are recorded in Britian and Ireland, of which only 4 are recorded on miners.

Unless otherwise stated, all parasitoid / host miner associations of Chalcidoidea are extracted from the Universal Chalcidoidea Database by Dr John Noyes.

Clicking a chalcidoid name will search the database and return the synonymy, taxonomy, distribution, associates (both host plants and host insects), biology, economic references and images of that parasitoid.

Clicking on a miner host name will open that species page on this website.