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Dirhinus Dalman

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Chalcidoidea; Family: Chalcididae; Subfamily: Dirhininae)

Dirhinus Dalman, 1818. Type species: Dirhinus excavatus Dalman, 1818, by monotypy.

Classification

 

Dirhinus anthracia Walker, 1846

Dirhinus excavatus Dalman, 1818

Dirhinus flavicornis Schmitz, 1946

Dirhinus garouae Risbec, 1956

Dirhinus giffardii Silvestri, 1913

Dirhinus gigasetosus Delvare, 2018

Dirhinus kambae Delvare, 2018

Dirhinus leakeyorum Delvare, 2018

Dirhinus maasaii Delvare, 2018

 

Dirhinus nidicolus Kerrich, 1964

Dirhinus quadrhinus Delvare, 2018

 

Dirhinus wohlfahrtiae Ferrière, 1935

Distribution

Worldwide.

Biology

Parasitoids of Diptera. Hosts are mainly synanthropic flies (Calliphoridae, Sarcophagidae and Muscidae) developing in vertebrate corpses (Bouček & Narendran, 1981; Noyes, 2018). Tephritidae (Silvestri 1913) and Glossinidae (Waterston 1917) are also parasitized. Dirhinus excavatus is a hyperparasitoid of Calliphoridae attacking locusts. The few references to lepidopteran hosts are probably mistaken instances of Dirhinus as hyperparasitoids of tachinid flies (Bouček & Narendran, 1981; Delvare & Copeland, 2018).

The host flies usually pupate within the soil. Female Dirhinus search the ground until a pupa is located. The female then uses her horns to excavate the soil in order to reach the pupa. The egg is laid within the puparium on the body of the pupa (Silvestri 1913; Delvare & Copeland, 2018).

References

Bouček, Z. & Narendran, T.C. 1981. Indian chalcid wasps (Hymenoptera) of the genus Dirhinus parasitic on synanthropic and other Diptera. Systematic Entomology 6: 229–251.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3113.1981.tb00438.x

Dalman, J.W. 1818. Några nya Genera och Species af Insecter beskrifna. Kungliga Svenska, Sweden.

Delvare G & Copeland, RS. 2018. Four-horned wasps, description of some remarkable Dirhinus (Hymenoptera, Chalcididae) from Kenya, with a discussion of their taxonomic placement. Zootaxa 4374: 301–349. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4374.3.1.

Delvare G, Copeland RS, Tanga CM. 2019. Description of Eniacomorpha hermetiae Delvare sp. n. (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Chalcididae) a pupal parasitoid of Hermetia illucens (L.) (Diptera, Stratiomyidae), and a potential threat to mass production of the fly as a feed supplement for domestic animals. Zootaxa 4638: 237–254. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4638.2.4

Ferrière, C. 1935. Description de deux importants chalcidiens d'Égypte et du Soudan. Bulletin de la Société Entomologique d'Egypte 19: 365–370.

Kerrich, G.J. 1964. A remarkable new African Dirhinus (Hym., Chalcididae). Revue de Zoologie et de Botanique Africaines 70: 148-153.

Masi, L. 1947. Nuovo contributo all conoscenza dei Dirhinini (Hymen. Chalc.). Eos, Revista Española di Entomologia, Madrid 23: 39–78.

Noyes, J.S. 2018. Universal Chalcidoidea database. Available from: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/chalcidoids/index.html

Risbec, J. 1956. Hyménoptères parasites du Cameroun. (2è Contribution). Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Afrique Noire (A) 18: 97–164.

Schmitz, G. 1946. Chalcididae (Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea). Exploration du Parc National Albert, Mission G. F. de Witte (1933–1935). Fascicule 48. Institut des Parcs Nationaux du Congo Belge, Bruxelles, 191 pp., 17 plates.

Silvestri, F. 1913. Viaggio in Africa per cercare parassiti di mosche dei frutti. Bollettino del Laboratorio di Zoologia Generale e Agraria della R. Scuola Superiore d'Agricoltura, Portici 8: 1–164.

Walker, F. 1846. List of the specimens of Hymenopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. Part 1 Chalcidites. Kessinger Publishing, London, vii + 100 pp.

Waterston, J. 1917. Chalcidoidea bred from Glossina in the northern territories, Gold Coast. Bulletin of Entomological Research 8: 178–179. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007485300037585

Credits

Photographs © Gerard Delvare (Cirad-CBGP, Montferrier-sur-Lez Cedex France).


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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