Lysiphlebus | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Family: | Braconidae |
Subfamily: | Aphidiinae |
Genus: | Lysiphlebus Förster, 1862 |
Lysiphlebus is a genus of parasitoid wasps belonging to the family Braconidae. [1]
The genus has a near cosmopolitan distribution. [1]
Species: [1]
Most Lysiphlebus species are haplodiploid, like other Hymenoptera. [2] However, all-female lineages are common in some Lysiphlebus-taxa including L. fabarum , L. cardui and L. confusus . [3]
In these asexual lineages, females can reproduce by a parthenogenetic mechanism, i.e. thelytoky, that involves automixis with central fusion. [4]
The genetic system underlying sex determination in Lysiphlebus is "complementary sex determination", similar to the cape honey bee (see Haplodiploidy § Sex determination in honey bees). [5] Unlike honey bees, however, the Lysiphlebuscomplementary sex determiner gene is thought to be present in multiple copies. [6]
Asexual females may occasionally produce diploid males, which when mated with sexual females, can convert sexual into asexual lineages, a process which has been dubbed "contagious parthenogenesis". [7]
Like other Aphidiinae, Lysiphlebus are endoparasitoids of aphids. They lay their eggs inside the body of aphids, where their larvae develop, eventually spinning a mummy-like cocoon inside its remains. [8]
Most Lysiphlebus species specialize in attacking ant-defended aphid colonies. [8] They avoid attack by the ants through chemical mimicry of the aphid cuticular hydrocarbons. [9]