FAMILY
Scelionidae
TAXONOMY
Telenomus basalis Wollaston, 1858, Madeira Archipelago.
OTHER COMMON NAMES
None known.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Body length of 0.04–0.05 in (1–1.3 mm). Black with downward-pointing elbow-shaped antennae and a flattened abdomen. Wing veins are reduced.
DISTRIBUTION
United States (Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina), West Indies, Venezuela (Aragua), Brazil (Minas Gerais, Paraná, and Distrito Federal), Australia (Canberra), Egypt, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Republic of South Africa (Pretoria), Zimbabwe (Harare), Portugal, France, and Italy.
HABITAT
Occurs in all crops attacked by bugs, including cotton, grains, soybeans and other legumes, tomatoes and other solanaceous crops, sweet corn, sunflowers, cole crops, cucurbits, and fruits and nuts.
BEHAVIOR
Primarily solitary idiobiont endoparasitoid of pentatomid eggs; completes development from egg to adult within the host egg.
FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET
Adults feed on nectar; larvae eat the eggs of bugs.
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY
Adults mate immediately after emerging from host eggs. The female inserts her egg into a host egg. After oviposition, females apply an external marker with the ovipositor to avoid superparasitism. There are three larval instars, and most feeding occurs during the last two. Pupation takes place in the host egg.
CONSERVATION STATUS
Not threatened.
SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS
Scelionids have been used quite successfully in classic biological control programs directed principally against pest hemipterans. The species has been introduced into many different countries to control Nezara viridula (Pentatomidae).
