Encyrtidae
Encyrtidae is a large family of parasitic wasps, with some 3710 described species in about 455 genera. The larvae of the majority are primary parasitoids on Hemiptera, though other hosts are attacked, and details of the life history can be variable (e.g., some attack eggs, some attack larvae, others are hyperparasites, and some Encyrtidae develop as parasitoids of ticks). They are found throughout the world in virtually all habitats, and are extremely important as biological control agents. They may also present as an ecological threat to the population of some species. For example, the endang
Species
FAMILY
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderHymenoptera
- FamilyEncyrtidae
The higher classification of the Encyrtidae used in this catalog differs drastically from that proposed in the 1951 edition. Some explanation is necessary. Burks has considered the Signiphoridae and Aphelinidae as subfamilies of the Encyrtidae. In the 1951 catalog the aphelinids were considered a subfamily of the Eulophidae and the signiphorids were treated as a distinct family (Thysanidae). The aphelinids and signiphorids appear more nearly related to the Encyrtidae than to other families of chalcidoids. In placing the aphelinids under the Encyrtidae, the subfamilies of aphelinids (sensu Ferriere, 1965, Faune de l'Europe Bassin Medit., 1: 1-206) have been relegated to tribal status. ~Recently Trjapitzin (1973, Ent. Rev. 52 (1): 118-125; Ent. Rev. 52 (2): 287-295) has treated the higher classification of the Encyrtidae (sensu stricto) and provided a radical reorganization at the tribal and subfamilial levels. His classification has been adopted in the present treatment of the Encyrtidae. In so doing, however, the placement of several genera remains undecided. These will be treated in a separate publication. ~In this section the term "cosmopolitan" means the species is found through
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Encyrtidae is a large family of parasitic wasps, with some 3710 described species in about 455 genera. The larvae of the majority are primary parasitoids on Hemiptera, though other hosts are attacked, and details of the life history can be variable (e.g., some attack eggs, some attack larvae, others are hyperparasites, and some Encyrtidae develop as parasitoids of ticks). They are found throughout the world in virtually all habitats, and are extremely important as biological control agents. They may also present as an ecological threat to the population of some species. For example, the endangered Papilio homerus butterfly is parasitized at a rate of 77%, making them the main contributor to egg mortality in this (and other) butterfly species.
Some species exhibit a remarkable developmental phenomenon called "polyembryony", in which a single egg multiplies clonally in the host and produces large numbers of identical adult wasps. Even more remarkably, some of the larvae are larger than the others and act in a similar way to the "soldiers" of eusocial insects, attacking any other wasp larvae already in the body of the host, and dying without reproducing ("altruism").