Cheloninae

The Cheloninae are a cosmopolitan subfamily of braconid parasitoid wasps.

Cheloninae
Imago of an unidentified Ascogaster species
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hymenoptera
Suborder:
Apocrita
Superfamily:
Ichneumonoidea
Family:
Braconidae
Subfamily:
Cheloninae
Genera

Several, see text

Description

Most Cheloninae are small and uniformly colored. They have a characteristic metasomal carapace formed from the fusion of the first three tergites.

Biology
Metasomal carapace of a Chelonine
Phanerotoma sp.

They are solitary koinobionts which parasitize Lepidoptera, especially Pyraloidea and Tortricoidea, but also other taxa whose larvae bore in stems, buds or fruits. Chelonines are egg-larval parasitoids, meaning they oviposit into a host egg, but the wasp larvae do not complete development until the caterpillar has hatched and matured. Chelonines carry polydnaviruses which aid in overcoming their hosts' immune system.[1]

Genera

Genera placed in Cheloninae include:

  • Ascogaster Wesmael, 1835 (paraphyletic?)
  • Austroascogaster Kittel and Austin, 2014
  • Chelonus Panzer, 1806
  • Dentigaster Zettel, 1990
  • †Diodontogaster Brues, 1933
  • †Eobracon Cockerell, 1920
  • Huseyinia Koçak and Kemal, 2008
  • Leptochelonus Zettel, 1990
  • Leptodrepana Shaw, 1990
  • Megascogaster Baker, 1926
  • Odontosphaeropyx Cameron, 1910
  • Phanaustrotoma Kittel and Austin, 2014
  • Phanerotoma Wesmael, 1838
  • Phanerotomella Szépligeti, 1900
  • Phanerotomoides Zettel, 1990
  • Pseudophanerotoma Zettel, 1990
  • Siniphanerotomella He et al., 1994
  • Wushenia Zettel, 1990

Previously belonging to the Adeliinae, but now confirmed to be nested within Cheloninae[2] in the tribe Adeliini are:

  • Adelius Haliday, 1834
  • Paradelius de Saeger, 1942
  • Sinadelius He and Chen, 2000
  • Sculptomyriola Belokobylskij, 1988

References
  1. Murphy, Nicholas; Banks, Jonathan C.; Whitfield, James B.; Austin, Andrew D. (2008-04-01). "Phylogeny of the parasitic microgastroid subfamilies (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) based on sequence data from seven genes, with an improved time estimate of the origin of the lineage". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 47 (1): 378–395. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2008.01.022. PMID 18325792.
  2. Kittel, R.N.; Austin, A.D.; Klopfstein, S. (2016). "Molecular and morphological phylogenetics of chelonine parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), with a critical assessment of divergence time estimations". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 101: 224–241. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.05.016. PMID 27179700.

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