Toxares
Haliday, 1840
Toxares is a of in the Braconidae, Aphidiinae. The genus was established by Haliday in 1840. At least one , T. deltiger, has been documented as a parasitoid of cereal aphids, with records from southern England and Finland indicating a Palearctic distribution.
Pronunciation
How to pronounce Toxares: //tɒkˈsɛəriːz//
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Habitat
Wheat fields and cereal crops, based on association with cereal aphids.
Distribution
Recorded from southern England (Rothamsted), Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
Host Associations
- Metopolophium dirhodum - A cereal ; 67% of mummies from this at Rothamsted in 1979 were T. deltiger.
Life Cycle
Develops as an endoparasitoid within , eventually killing the host and forming a mummy. Affected aphids have been observed to leave the host plant prior to death and mummy formation.
Behavior
Laboratory observations suggest that aphids parasitized by T. deltiger leave their plant before dying and becoming mummified.
Ecological Role
agent of cereal .
Human Relevance
Potential value in of agricultural pest aphids.
Similar Taxa
- EphedrusBoth belong to Aphidiinae and are ; Ephedrus are more frequently documented and have broader records.
More Details
Taxonomic note
Toxares was historically placed in Aphidiidae, but modern classifications assign it to Braconidae, Aphidiinae.
Data limitations
Most biological information derives from a single 1979 study of T. deltiger at one location; broader patterns for the remain poorly documented.
Sources and further reading
- BugGuide
- GBIF taxonomy match
- iNaturalist taxon
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Catalogue of Life
- New finds of <i>Ephedrus</i> and <i>Toxares</i> species (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Aphidiinae) from Finland
- Toxares deltiger (Haliday) (Hymenoptera: Aphidiidae) parasiting the cereal aphid, Metopolophium dirhodum (Walker) (Hemiptera: Aphididae), in southern England: a new host-parasitoid record