The Braconidae is the 2nd largest family within Hymenoptera, with at least 40,000 species described to date. The number of subfamilies remains a debate amongst specialists - which in part reflects the lack of knowledge concerning the phylogeny of this family - although 29 subfamilies can be recognised. The family occurs world-wide.
Members of the Braconidae family have a wide variety of biologies, endoparasitism and ectoparasitism, idiobionts and koinobionts. They are all parasitoids of larvae of holometabolous insects, although hemimetabolous insects are also targeted.
Click on the thumbnails below for larger images and biology for each species illustrated.
BUGS FOR THE AMATEUR
| Braconinae |
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| Un-identified specimen |
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| Hymenoptera:Apocrita (Parasitica):Ichneumonoidea: Braconidae. |