''Baeoentedon balios'', the balios wasp, is a species of

chalcid wasp Chalcid wasps (, , for their metallic colour) are insects within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, part of the order Hymenoptera. The superfamily contains some 22,500 known species, and an estimated total diversity of more than 500,000 species, me ...

which was first described from China in 2014. It is a

parasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...

of whiteflies of the family

Aleyrodidae Whiteflies are Hemipterans that typically feed on the undersides of plant leaves. They comprise the family Aleyrodidae, the only family in the superfamily Aleyrodoidea. More than 1550 species have been described. Description and taxonomy The A ...

Description

''Baeoentedon balios'' adults are around 0.9 mm in length, the head and thorax are metallic blue-black in colour, while the abdomen is pale yellow. The antennae have a largely white scape with a pale pedicel and its legs are coloured pale yellow. The hyaline forewing has an apical transverse brown cloud.

Distribution

''Baeoentedon balios'' was described in 2014 from specimens taken from

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

, in December 2014 it was discovered in Homestead, Florida, the first record of the genus ''

Baeoentedon ''Baeoentedon'' is a genus of hymenopteran insects of the family Eulophidae, they are parasitoids of whitefly from the family Aleyrodidae which are found on trees of the genus ''Ficus''. They have been recorded from Australia, China, India, Ind ...

'' in the New World. A survey in 2015 recorded balios wasps in four counties of southern Florida, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach. Within Florida the wasp is likely to be spread by being transported with ''Ficus'' trees infested with whiteflies.

Biology

''Baeoentedon balios'' is a parasitoid of whitefly, specifically ficus whiteflies. The type specimen was reared from '' Pealius spina'' which had been collected on ''

Ficus religiosa ''Ficus religiosa'' or sacred fig is a species of Ficus, fig native to the Indian subcontinent and Indochina that belongs to Moraceae, the fig or mulberry family. It is also known as the bodhi tree, pippala tree, peepul tree, peepal tree, pipa ...

''. These wasps develop through six distinct stages from the egg through three larval

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

s, a

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

like stage and an

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the imaginal stage, the stage in which the insect attains maturity. It follows the f ...

and this takes 19–24 days at room temperature. They are able to parasitise whitefly nymphs in the first, second and third instars but they appear to prefer the second instar. As well as parasitizing the nymphs the wasps can also cause high level of mortality among them when they are probed by or fed on by the adults, 76% of the first instar nymphs which were probed or fed on by adult balios wasps subsequently died. A parasitized nymph has a tiny pinhole on its right side in the middle and turns dark yellow and as it grows the asp larva can be visible. When the adult wasp emerges it creates a neat round hole in the nymph's

exoskeleton An exoskeleton (from Greek ''éxō'' "outer" and ''skeletós'' "skeleton") is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to an internal skeleton (endoskeleton) in for example, a human. In usage, some of the ...

. '' Encarsia variegate'' has been recorded as a hyperparasitoid of ''B. balios''. ''B. balios'' has only been recorded as parasitizing two species of host, ''Pealius spina'' in China and '' Singhiella simplex'' in Florida, both are ficus whiteflies and in Florida most specimens of ''B. balios'' were found on '' Ficus benjamina'' which is a popular hedging tree in that region. Since its discovery in Florida ''B balios'' has been found to be the dominant and most consistent parasitoid to attack ficus whitefly.

References

External links

Parasitoid, Baeoentedon balios, parasitizing the nymph of ficus whitefly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB56DUbudu8 {{Taxonbar, from=Q30326314 Insects described in 2014 Biological pest control wasps Eulophidae Hymenoptera of North America