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Cotesia

Fagan-Jeffries, Erinn P.;Austin, Andrew D.

EntityQ13424318· pop 13· linked from 23 articles

Cotesia is a genus of braconid wasps first described by Peter Cameron in 1891 and named in honour of E. C. Cotes. Some species parasitize caterpillars of species considered pests, and are used as biocontrol agents. Cotesia congregata parasitizes the tomato and the tobacco hornworms. C. glomerata and C. rubecula feed on the cabbage white and other white butterfly caterpillars. C. gonopterygis and C. risilis are host-specific and parasitize the common brimstone.

Species

GENUS

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumArthropoda
  3. ClassInsecta
  4. OrderHymenoptera
  5. FamilyBraconidae
Observations recorded28,402

via GBIF

Museum specimens

Specimen records
1,644
With media
106
Family
Braconidae
Collections
MHNCA, UAM, CHAS, UCM, CSU
Recorded in
Mexico, United States

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

4 sections
Contents
  • Species
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Cotesia is a genus of braconid wasps first described by Peter Cameron in 1891 and named in honour of E. C. Cotes. Some species parasitize caterpillars of species considered pests, and are used as biocontrol agents. Cotesia congregata parasitizes the tomato and the tobacco hornworms. C. glomerata and C. rubecula feed on the cabbage white and other white butterfly caterpillars. C. gonopterygis and C. risilis are host-specific and parasitize the common brimstone.

The wasp C. melanoscelus parasitizes the caterpillar of the spongy moth. It, and the spongy moth, are native to Europe. The spongy moth is an invasive species in North America, and C. melanoscelus has been imported as a biocontrol of the moth. Cotesia icipe is a parasitoid of Spodoptera littoralis and beet armyworm (Spodoptera exigua) which are pests of amaranth crops.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cotesia” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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