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Ixodiphagus
Sign in to saveIxodiphagus is a genus of encyrtid wasps (order Hymenoptera, superfamily Chalcidoidea) that are obligate parasitoids of ticks (order Ixodida). Females oviposit into larval or nymphal ticks; development resumes inside the nymph and the emerging adult wasps kill the host. Because of this unique biology, Ixodiphagus has been repeatedly investigated as a biological control agent for medically and veterinary important ticks.
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 21
- With media
- 15
- Family
- Encyrtidae
- Collections
- QM, OSUC, NHMUK
- Recorded in
- Australia, Russia, Venezuela
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- Encyrtidae
- Image
- Ixodiphagus-hookeri-Howard-hatched-from-an-Ixodes-ricinus-nymph-Photo-Oscar-Vorst.jpg
Show 3 more facts
- taxon name
- Ixodiphagus
- taxon rank
- genus
- Commons category
- Ixodiphagus
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- History and taxonomy
- Species
- Morphology
- Biology and life cycle
- Host range and ecology
- Distribution
- Use in biological control
- See also
- References
- External links
Ixodiphagus is a genus of encyrtid wasps (order Hymenoptera, superfamily Chalcidoidea) that are obligate parasitoids of ticks (order Ixodida). Females oviposit into larval or nymphal ticks; development resumes inside the nymph and the emerging adult wasps kill the host. Because of this unique biology, Ixodiphagus has been repeatedly investigated as a biological control agent for medically and veterinary important ticks.
== History and taxonomy == The genus was erected by Leland Ossian Howard in 1907 for I. texanus collected from rabbit ticks in Texas, USA. Howard (1908) described Hunterellus hookeri, later transferred to Ixodiphagus. Additional names proposed for tick‑parasitoid encyrtids (e.g. Australzaomma Girault, 1925) are now treated as junior synonyms of Ixodiphagus. The genus is placed in subfamily Encyrtinae within Encyrtidae.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ixodiphagus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.