(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Ichneumonoidea; Family: Braconidae; Subfamily: Aphidiinae; Genus: Aphidius)

Aphidius ervi Haliday,1834. Holotype: in the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH). Type Locality: United Kingdom.

Distribution

Introduced to the Afrotropical region: South Africa. Originates from the Palaearctic Region and has been successfully introduced into North and South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia (Muller et al 2014).

Biology

In South Africa reared from the potato aphid, Macrosiphum euphorbiae (Thomas) on Malva parviflora L. (Malvaceae) (Muller et al 2014). The species is commercially available as a biological control agent for the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Harris), M. euphorbiae, as well as other aphid pests (Wei et al. 2005; Boivin et al. 2012) including pest species on cereals, tomato, sweet pepper, eggplant, gerbera, roses, cucumber and beans (Cameron et al. 1984; Kos et al. 2009; Boivin et al. 2012; Muller et al 2014).

References

Muller L, Krüger K & Kfir R. 2014. First report of the aphid parasitoid Aphidius ervi Haliday (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae) from South Africa. African Entomology 22(1): 214-215. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4001/003.022.0126

Credits

Photographs © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa).

Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

Citation: van Noort, S. 2024. WaspWeb: Hymenoptera of the World. URL: www.waspweb.org (accessed on <day/month/year>).

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