Dirrhope
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hymenoptera
Family:
Braconidae
Subfamily:
Dirrhopinae
Genus:
Dirrhope

Dirrhope is the only extant genus in the subfamily Dirrhopinae of braconid parasitoid wasps. Dirrope was included in the Microgastrinae until 1984.[1] Specimens of this genus have been found fossilsed in amber dating from the Cretaceous period.[2]

Description and distribution

Dirrhope are rarely collected, very small wasps. They are similar to small microgastrines but the first metasomal segment is highly flattened with the spiracle on the median rather than lateral tergite.[3]

This genus may have a cosmopolitan distribution, but has so far been found in the holarctic region, South-East Asia, South Africa, Australasia, and Central America.[4]

Biology

Little has been observed of the biology of Dirrhope but due to their close relationship with the Microgastrinae they are likely koinobiont endoparasitoids and may carry polydnaviruses. One species of Dirrhope has been reared from Ectoedemia phleophaga (Nepticulidae).[4]

References

  1. ↑ van Achterberg, C. (1984). "Essay on the phylogeny of Braconidae (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea)". Entomologisk Tidskrift.
  2. ↑ Belokobylskij, Sergey A. (2012). "Cretaceous Braconid Wasps from the Magadan Province of Russia". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 57 (2): 351–361. doi:10.4202/app.2010.0120.
  3. ↑ Wharton, Robert A.; Marsh, Paul M.; Sharkey, Michael J. (1997). Manual of the New World Genera of the Family Braconidae (Hymenoptera) (PDF). Washington DC: The International Society of Hymenopterists. p. 203.
  4. 1 2 Quicke, Donald L.J. (2015). Biology, systematics, evolution and ecology of Braconid and Ichneumonid parasitoid wasps. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1118907078.
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