Aleochara
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Rove beetles of the genus Aleochara are among the only insect parasites in the beetle family Staphylinidae. Most of the Aleochara are more rightly called parasitoids because their larvae use a single host, which is killed during the beetle's maturation. Adult Aleochara are predators. Life histories are known for only a few species.
Aleochara are found worldwide except in Antarctica. There are more than 400 species (Maus et al. 1998). The adults of many species can be found near dung or carrion, feeding commonly on the eggs, larvae, and puparia of various scathophagous and necrophagous Diptera (Klimazewski 1984). For those species whose life histories are known, the larvae utilize fly puparia as their hosts.
The most extensively studied aleocharine rove beetle is Aleochara bilineata Gyllenhal, which is a significant biological control agent against some fly pests (notably Delia spp. in the family Anthomyiidae) of agricultural crops in the mustard and cabbage family Brassicaceae, such as cabbage, rutabaga, canola, and many others.
[edit] References
- Klimaszewski, J. 1984. A revision of the genus Aleochara Gravenhorst in America north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae, Aleocharinae). Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 129: 1-211.
- Maus, C., B. Mittman, K. Peschke. 1998. Host records of parasitoid Aleochara Gravenhorst species (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) attacking puparia of cyclorrhapheous Diptera. Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 45: 231-254.
