A parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host and at the host's expense, and which sooner or later kills it. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasitism, distinguished by the fatal prognosis for the host, which makes the strategy close to predation.
Osmylidae are a small family of winged insects of the net-winged insect order Neuroptera. The osmylids, also called giant lacewings, are found all over the world. A common species through most of Europe is Osmylus fulvicephalus.
The Aphidiinae are a subfamily of tiny parasitoid wasps that use aphids as their hosts. Several species have been used in biological control programs of various aphids.
Microgastrinae is a subfamily of braconid wasps, encompassing 2,000 described species, with an estimated 5,000-10,000 total species. This makes it one of the richest subfamilies with the most species of parasitoid wasps.
Cotesia glomerata, the white butterfly parasite, is a small parasitic wasp species belonging to family Braconidae.
Phycita diaphana is a species of snout moth. It is found in Portugal, Spain, Greece, Iraq, Egypt, Réunion, Mauritius, and Israel.
Semachrysa is a genus of green lacewing found from Japan to Australia along the Western part of the Pacific Ocean. 20 Semachrysa species have been described between 1914 and 2012. 15 of them - one of which was new - have been included in a recent taxonomic study:
Cotesia urabae is a small wasp, having a black body with yellow-brown legs, characterized by a solitary larval endoparasitoid stage. It is part of a large complex of 11 primary parasitoids of Uraba lugens Walker, many of which are polyphagous. The female inserts its ovipositor into the a U. lugens larva, depositing its eggs there, and it has been found that one female may carry up to 400 eggs. While C. urabae females are able to attack the same larva several times; only one single parasitoid completes its development in each larva.
Meteorus is a genus of parasitoid wasps in the family Braconidae. It comprises over 330 species worldwide.
Aleiodes is a genus of the family Braconidae of parasitoid wasps described by Constantin Wesmael in 1838. They are also known as mummy-wasps. The female attacks caterpillars of various species, including many pests such as Gypsy moths and tent caterpillars, and then deposits eggs in the caterpillars. The eggs hatch and the wasp larva feeds on the caterpillar, leaving a hardened caterpillar skin, or mummy. The wasp pupates within the mummy and eventually the adult breaks out, leaving a small hole in the husk of the caterpillar.
Aleiodes gaga is a species of parasitoid wasp belonging to the family Braconidae. It was first described by Donald Quicke and Buntika Butcher in 2012 after a single individual was discovered in the Chae Son National Park in Thailand. The species is named after Lady Gaga. This species is one of 179 species identified by the first "turbo-taxonomic" search of DNA barcoding of cytochrome oxidase I (COI).
Spathius is a genus of doryctine wasps. The larvae of this genus of wasps feed on beetle larvae. They act as controllers of the parasitic Hylurgopinus rufipes.
Chrysopophthorus is a genus of wasps in the family Braconidae.
Syntretus is a genus of parasitic wasps of adult bumblebees.
Blacini is a tribe of braconid Parasitoid wasps. Formerly the subfamily Blacinae, this group was demoted to a tribe and placed within the Brachistinae based on molecular evidence in 2011.
Diolcogaster is a genus of parasitoid wasps within the subfamily Microgastrinae of the family Braconidae. The genus is poorly studied, likely with multiple undescribed species. The type species is Diolcogaster melligaster(Provancher, 1886), formerly Microgaster melligaster. Species in this genus parasitize lepidopterans and are geographically widespread, with species found in Asia and North America.
Chrysoperla rufilabris is a species of green lacewing in the family Chrysopidae. It is found in the Caribbean, Central America, and North America.
