Bethylids: A Living Weapon to Endopterygotan Pests

Kaneria Prashant B*, BB Kabaria and NG Mayani

Post-Graduate Seminar (Plant Protection Group), College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, Gujarat, India

*Corresponding Author: Kaneria Prashant B, Post-Graduate Seminar (Plant Protection Group), College of Agriculture, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, Gujarat, India.

Received: July 30, 2018; Published: August 07, 2018

Citation: Kaneria Prashant B., et al. “Bethylids: A Living Weapon to Endopterygotan Pests". Acta Scientific Agriculture 2.9 (2018).

  In the order Hymenoptera, family Bethylidae belongs to the superfamily Chrysidoidea together with other six families, viz. Chrysididae, Dryinidae, Embolemidae, Sclerogibbidae, Scolebythidae and Plumariidae. Bethylids are ant-like small, nimble wasps that are readily recognized by their strong flattened body and prognathus head. Bethylidae is represented by about 2216 nominal species in 97 genera of 7 subfamilies [1]. The estimated number of world Bethylid fauna is 6000 species, with only less than 30% of them described at present. In India, 98 species in 23 genera under 4 subfamilies are known. Hence, among the members of the super family Chrysidoidea [2] Bethylidae represents the most diversity rich group to be explored.

  Seetharama [3] revealed that the female wasp of Apenesia sahyadrics (Azevedo and Waichert) laid 53.64 ± 3.06 eggs (10 - 123 eggs). The female wasp lived for a period of 66.48 ± 3.66 days (11 - 128 days). In the case of male, the average longevity was 7.96 ± 0.30 days (5 - 15 days).

Copyright: © 2018 Kaneria Prashant B., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.