Taxonomic Study Of Parasitic Wasps On Main Forest Defoliators In China (Hymenoptera)

Forest insect defoliators are some of the most destructive pests in Chinese forest and make serious economical losses every year. For instance, huge areas of pine forests have been damaged by pine caterpillars. In recent years, sawflies has become serious pests in Shanxi and Yunnan Provinces. For conducting the biological control of the pests, investigations should be made first to find their effective natural enemies. Hymenopterous parasitoids, particularly chalcidoids and seclionids, are among the most important natural enemies of forest defoliators. Therefore I investigated the parastic wasps on sawflies and pine caterpillars and has made taxonomic study. The investigation areas was carried out mainly in Hebei, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Yunnan Provinces and Beijing City.Based on studies of many parasitoid specimens collected and reared, this paper describes 20 genera and 35 species of chalcidoids and seclionids parasitizing pine caterpillars and sawflies belonging to ten families in superfamily Chalcidoidea and one family (Seclionidae) in superfamily Proctotrupoidea (Hymenoptera), in which 9 species are new to science, 5 gengera and 1 species new to China.Meanwhile, a historical review on the subject in a global scale, the morphology and biology of those parasitoids are also dealt with. The research methods of parasitic wasps are introduced and improved. In the taxonomic part, each family contains a short family description and key to genera. Every genus is provided the genus definition, key to species and species description in detail.