''Tetrastichus'' is a genus of

hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s of the family

Eulophidae The Eulophidae are a large family of hymenopteran insects, with over 4,300 described species in some 300 genera. The family includes the genus ''Elasmus'', which used to be treated as a separate family, "Elasmidae", and is now treated as a subf ...

. ''

Tetrastichus planipennisi ''Tetrastichus planipennisi'' is a parasitic non-stinging wasp of the family Eulophidae which is native to North Asia. It is a parasitoid of the emerald ash borer (''Agrilus planipennis'' Fairmaire, family Buprestidae), an invasive species which ...

'' 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 the emerald ash borer, a wood boring insect native to Asia which is an invasive species in North America. ''T. planipennisi'' is being evaluated as a biological control agent.

Host species

The genus ''Tetrastichus'' parasitizes many different species of Lepidoptera, such as ''

Pyralis farinalis ''Pyralis'' is a genus of snout moths. It was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Species * ''Pyralis caustica'' (Meyrick, 1884) * ''Pyralis costinotalis'' Hampson, 1917 * ''Pyralis electalis'' Hulst, 1886 * ''Pyralis farinalis'' (Linnaeus, 175 ...

''.

References

Key to Nearctic eulophid generaUniversal Chalcidoidea Database
Eulophidae {{Eulophidae-stub