Parasitoids (mostly insects ) as part of its life cycle an egg deposited in or near your host or guest (also usually an insect), then the larvae live as ectoparasites or endoparasites , depending on species. This will develop in the victim during their larval cycle. The adult parasitoid is a free-living animal can be both herbivore and predator.
The distinctive features of the parasitoids are:
At the end of their larval host-dies (feature that distinguishes it from common parasites).
Each parasitoid uses only one host during their life cycle (difference from predators, which kill several victims throughout their lives).
Parasitoids are usually much more specific than predators, unlike parasites can disperse actively in search of prey. For these reasons are very important as agents of biological control of insect pests, mainly in agriculture, an example of parasitoid wasp Agriculture is the Eretmocerus mundus , which parasitizes copies of snuff whitefly Bemisia tabaci .

Endoparasitoid : the parasitoid larva feeds and develops inside the host body.
Ectoparasitoid : the parasitoid larva feeds externally from the host.
Solitaire : A single parasitoid feeds on a single host.
Gregarious : several parasitoids, sometimes hundreds, feeding on a single host, can develop the whole.
Superparasitism : several eggs of the same species are deposited by different females in the same host.
Multiparasitism : eggs of different species are placed in the same host, different species can grow to adult.
Hyperparasitoid : the host is another parasite.
Hyperparasitoid Optional : acts as a parasite, and when the need is as hyperparasitoid.
Hyperparasitoid must : necessarily need to develop at the expense of a parasitoid.
Parasitoids koinobionts (koinobionts) : at the time of placing the female of the parasitoid does not kill the host, and is the larva who brings death.
Idiobionts parasitoids : the start time of the parasitoid female kills the host.

Approximately 10% of ls described species of insects are parasitoids. 1 There are four orders of insects with many species that specialize in this type of life cycle. Most are of the order Hymenoptera , the so-called " parasitica "or suborder Apocrita. Among these the most numerous are the superfamilies Chalcidoidea and Ichneumonoidea (wasps ichneumnidas), followed by the superfamilies Proctotrupoidea and Platygastroidea . In addition to members of parasitica, other lineages of Hymenoptera with parasitoid species, such as Chrysidoidea and Vespoidea , and the least common of the family Orussidae . The flies (order Diptera ) include several families of parasitoids, which has the largest number of species is Tachinidae . There are other smaller families as Pipunculidae , Conopidae and others. The other two orders are Strepsiptera , a small group composed exclusively of species of parasitoids, and the order Coleoptera (beetles), which includes at least two families: Ripiphoridae and Rhipiceridae , where most species are parasitoids, and the family Staphylinidae with the genus Aleochara .
A few members of other orders also are parasitoids, within the family they stand Epipyropidae the order Lepidoptera , with ectoparasitoids of Fulgoroidea . Hymenoptera parasitoids often have very specific life cycles. In a family, Trigonalidae , the female wasp lays its eggs in pouches made ??by her ovipositor on the edge of the leaves. When a caterpillar feeds on these leaves swallow some eggs, which reach the intestine of the caterpillar, where they hatch, peforan the intestinal wall and reach the abdominal cavity. They look for other parasitoids and larvae feed on them. Secondary parasitoids or hyperparasitoids. Some larvae of the caterpillar trigonlidos used as a means of transport to be brought to the nests of social wasps, which parasitize the larvae of the wasp.




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