butterfly parasites

[Richard Worth]

Brian,

In addition to having tachinid flies and ichneumonid and braconid 
wasps, you may find that you have some wasps in the superfamily 
Chalcidoidea.  This is a group of several families of very small 
wasps with very simplified wings (little venation).  Some are 
parasitoid specialists on various leps.  One new book that I know of 
for this group is:

Gibson, G.A.P., Huber, J.T., and Woolley, J.B. (eds.)  1997. 
Annotated Keys to the Genera of the Nearctic Chalcidoidea 
(Hymenoptera).  NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.  794pp.

I haven't actually used this yet, so I don't know how tough it is. 
Hope it helps.  Good luck.

Richard


>Greetings all,
>     I have been raising leps for a few years now and have acquired quite a
>few parasites (various Diptera and Hymenoptera I believe) that emerge from
>the caterpillars and pupae.  It's time I try to identify them.  The searches
>I have run so far are a bit disappointing.  Can anyone point me to the books
>I am looking to read?  I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so Western
>North American information would be best, yes?  Or can some of these be
>imported controls?
>     Advance thanks for any help.
>                                                 Brian
><remove "fly" for e-mail reply">

Richard A. Worth
Oregon Department of Agriculture
Plant Division
rworth at oda.state.or.us
(503) 986-6461
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 1427 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20000125/d6ce8859/attachment.bin