Cheloninae

The Cheloninae are a cosmopolitan subfamily of braconid parasitoid wasps.

Cheloninae
Imago of an unidentified Ascogaster species
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Braconidae
Subfamily:	Cheloninae Foerster, 1863
Genera
Several, see text

Description

Most Cheloninae are small and uniformly colored. They have a characteristic metasomal carapace formed from the fusion of the first three tergites.

Biology

Metasomal carapace of a Chelonine

Phanerotoma sp.

They are solitary koinobionts which parasitize Lepidoptera, especially Pyraloidea and Tortricoidea, but also other taxa whose larvae bore in stems, buds or fruits. Chelonines are egg-larval parasitoids, meaning they oviposit into a host egg, but the wasp larvae do not complete development until the caterpillar has hatched and matured. Chelonines carry polydnaviruses which aid in overcoming their hosts' immune system.^[1]

Genera

Genera placed in Cheloninae include:

• Ascogaster Wesmael, 1835 (paraphyletic?)
• Austroascogaster Kittel and Austin, 2014
• Chelonus Panzer, 1806
• Dentigaster Zettel, 1990
• †Diodontogaster Brues, 1933
• †Eobracon Cockerell, 1920
• Huseyinia Koçak and Kemal, 2008
• Leptochelonus Zettel, 1990
• Leptodrepana Shaw, 1990
• Megascogaster Baker, 1926
• Odontosphaeropyx Cameron, 1910
• Phanaustrotoma Kittel and Austin, 2014
• Phanerotoma Wesmael, 1838
• Phanerotomella Szépligeti, 1900
• Phanerotomoides Zettel, 1990
• Pseudophanerotoma Zettel, 1990
• Siniphanerotomella He et al., 1994
• Wushenia Zettel, 1990

Previously belonging to the Adeliinae, but now confirmed to be nested within Cheloninae^[2] in the tribe Adeliini are:

• Adelius Haliday, 1834
• Paradelius de Saeger, 1942
• Sinadelius He and Chen, 2000
• Sculptomyriola Belokobylskij, 1988