Kingdom Animalia Higher classification Braconidae Order Hymenopterans | Phylum Arthropoda Rank Subfamily | |
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Similar Braconidae, Hymenopterans, Spathius, Insect, Alysiinae | ||
The Doryctinae or doryctine wasps are a large subfamily of braconid parasitic wasps (Braconidae) with a worldwide distribution (except the polar regions). Numerous genera and species formerly unknown to science are being described every year. This subfamily is presumably part of a clade containing otherwise any or all of the Alysiinae, Braconinae, Gnamptodontinae, Opiinae and Ypsistocerinae, and might be most closely related to the last one of these; whether the Rogadinae are also part of this group is not known with certainty.
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Description and ecology
Doryctine wasps are found across almost the entire size range of Braconidae; some species are quite large by the family's standards, and even in the small species the head is massive and the body, while slender, remarkably elongated. Also, Doryctinae tend to be small-winged; many have very much reduced wings, and numerous species in this family are unable to fly or even lack wings entirely. They have a characteristic row of stout spines running lengthwise along the foreleg tibia, and a cyclostome depression above the mandibles.
Like the Mesostoinae (a small subfamily endemic to Australia), some Doryctinae are known to form galls on plants. In general however, they are koinobionts, as is usual for Braconidae. The food of the koinobiont Doryctinae larvae are most often the larvae of wood-boring beetles – such as jewel beetles (Buprestidae) –, on which the wasp larvae feed as ectoparasitoids. Other species parasitize lepidopteran (butterfly and moth) or symphytan (sawfly) larvae. Several doryctine wasps are of economic importance as biocontrol agents, e.g. against eucalyptus pests.
Selected genera
Genera placed in the Doryctinae include:
