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1 March 2010 Diversity and Distribution of Braconidae, a Family of Parasitoid Wasps in the Central European Peatbogs of South Bohemia, Czech Republic
Aurel I. Lozan, Sergey Belokobylskij, Cees van Van Achterberg, Michael T. Monaghan
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Abstract

An ecological overview of seven years investigation of Braconidae, a family of parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea) and a tyrpho-classification of parasitoids in peatbog areas of South Bohemia, Czech Republic are given. A total of 350 species were recorded in investigated sites, but only five tyrphobionts (1.4%) are proposed: Microchelonus basalis, Microchelonus koponeni, Coloneura ate, Coloneura danica and Myiocephalus niger. All of these species have a boreal-alpine distribution that, in Central Europe, is associated only with peatbogs. Tyrphophilous behaviour is seen in at least four (1.1%) species: Microchelonus pedator, Microchelonus subpedator, Microchelonus karadagi and Microchelonus gravenhorstii; however, a number of other braconids prefer peatbogs because they were more frequently encountered within, rather than outside, the bog habitat. The rest of the braconids (342 species, 97.5%) are tyrphoneutrals, many of them being eurytopic components of various habitats throughout their current ranges. Lists of tyrphobiontic braconids and a brief commentary on species composition, distributional picture of actual ranges, and parasitoid association to bog landscape are provided. Being true refugial habitats for populations in an ever-changing world, peatbogs play a significant role in harboring insect communities.

This is an open access paper. We use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license that permits unrestricted use, provided that the paper is properly attributed.
Aurel I. Lozan, Sergey Belokobylskij, Cees van Van Achterberg, and Michael T. Monaghan "Diversity and Distribution of Braconidae, a Family of Parasitoid Wasps in the Central European Peatbogs of South Bohemia, Czech Republic," Journal of Insect Science 10(16), 1-21, (1 March 2010). https://doi.org/10.1673/031.010.1601
Received: 28 January 2008; Accepted: 1 December 2008; Published: 1 March 2010
KEYWORDS
Braconidae
Central Europe
ecology
faunistics
Hymenoptera
tyrpho-classification
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