Subfamily Aphidiinae

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Introduction

This subfamily comprises mostly small, delicate wasps that, apart from species with reduced venation or which have been reared from their hosts, are often difficult to identify. They are exclusively solitary endoparasitoids of aphids.

The group is primarily a northern hemisphere one but they have been transported around the world, both accidentally and as purposeful introductions as biological control agents of aphids. Of the 23 species recorded from Australia only one is likely to be endemic, Parephedrus relictus Starý & Carver, which parasitises Sensoriaphis, the Nothofagus aphid.

General References

van Achterberg, C. 1997. Subfamily Aphidiinae. pp. 119-131 in Wharton, R.A., Marsh, P.M. & Sharkey, M.J. (eds). Manual of the New World Genera of the Family Braconidae (Hymenoptera). Washington, D. C. : The International Society of Hymenopterists 439 pp.

History of changes