The Aphidiinae are a subfamily of parasitoid

Parasitoid

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilises or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host...

 wasp

Wasp

The term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor an ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their...

s that use aphid

Aphid

Aphids, also known as plant lice and in Britain and the Commonwealth as greenflies, blackflies or whiteflies, are small sap sucking insects, and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Aphids are among the most destructive insect pests on cultivated plants in temperate regions...

s as their host. While the larva of the 2–3 mm long Praon leaves the hollowed shell of the aphid from below to pupate in a volcano

Volcano

2. Bedrock3. Conduit 4. Base5. Sill6. Dike7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano10. Throat11. Parasitic cone12. Lava flow13. Vent14. Crater15...

-like cocoon, most other Aphidiinae pupate inside the dead aphid.

Several species have been used in biological control programs of aphids.

Systematics

Although they have often been treated as a separate family, the Aphidiidae, the Aphidiinae are a lineage within the Braconidae. It is not yet clear to which braconid subfamilies they are most closely related.
Aphidiinae relationships
(after Shi & Chen 2005)
The Aphidiinae are subdivided into several tribes, the Ephedrini, Praini and Aphodiini, with the latter subdived into three subtribes. Most species reside in the Aphodiini. The Praini's loss of internal pupation is likely to be secondary.

Genera

Ephedrini

• Ephedrus

Praini

• Praon
• Dyscritulus

Trioxini

• Trioxys
• Monoctonia
• Lipolexis

Aphidiini

• Aphidius
• Diaeretiella
• Diaeretus
• Lysaphidus
• Pauesia
• Protaphidius
• Pseudopauesia
• Adialytus
• Lysiphlebus
• Xenostigmus

External links

• BugGuide.net: Pictures of Aphoniinae
• Cedar Creek: Picture of a Praon sp.
• brown citrus aphid parasitoid, Lipolexis scutellaris on the UF
  University of Florida
  The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
  
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  Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
  The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is a federal-state-county partnership dedicated to developing knowledge in agriculture, human and natural resources, and the life sciences, and enhancing and sustaining the quality of human life by making that information...
  
  Featured Creatures Web site