The leaf and stem mines of British flies and other insects
 

(Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera)

by Brian Pitkin, Willem Ellis, Colin Plant and Rob Edmunds

 

HYMENOPTEROUS PARASITOIDS

BRACONIDAE

Introduction

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Braconid names used here follow Broad, Shaw & Godfray (2016) Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Braconidae. Biodiversity Data Journal 4 : e8151 - e8151.

The majority of braconids are endoparasitoids, although in a substantial number of subfamilies the final instar erupts from it hosts to complete its feeding externally. Ectoparasitism throughout the larval life occurs in just one group of related subfamilies represented in Britain by Doryctinae, Braconinae, Histeromerinae and Rogadinae. Hyperparasitism is rarely practised by Braconidae. For further discussion of the biology and a key for the identification of the families and subfamilies of Braconidae see Shaw & Huddleston (1991).

British & Irsh Braconidae and the percentage of British & Irish insect associates
British & Irsh Braconidae and the percentage of British & Irish insect associates (n=1350)

Only about 43% of the 1,359 British and Irish Braconidae are currently recorded as parasitoids of British and Irish miners; about 47% of British and Irish braconid parasitoids have partners recorded in Yu (2012), but these do not include British and Irish miners. At present, of the 1,103 British and Irish miners discussed here 387 have no known Hymenoptera parasitoids, although it is likely that most of them are yet to be discovered.

British & Irsh Braconidae and the percentage of British & Irish miner hosts by Order
British & Irsh Braconidae and the percentage of British & Irish miner hosts by Order (n=467)

The majority of the known British and Irish miner hosts of the known British and Irish Braconidae are Diptera (54.5%) and Lepidoptera (43.8%), with just a few Hymenoptera and only one Coleoptera.

The majority of Braconidae recorded as parasitoids of British and Irish miners are species in the subfamilies Alysiinae, Opiinae and Microgastrinae. No species of the numerically smaller subfamilies Aphidiinae, Cenocoeliinae, Doryctinae, Helconinae, Hormiinae, Microtypinae, Pambolinae, or Sigalphinae are known as parasitoids of British and Irish miners.

All of the parasitoids and their associated host minerslisted here except Liriomyza huidobrensis, Liriomya sativa and Liriomyza trifolii occur in Britain. The associations themselves, however, may not be British.

Unless otherwise stated, all parasitoid / host miner associations of Braconidae are extracted from World Ichneumonoidea in Taxapad by Dicky Sick Ki Yu, which unfortunately is no longer available.



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