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Michael J Sharkey, Biology, Ecology & Systematics of Australian Scelio, Annals of the Entomological Society of America, Volume 96, Issue 2, 1 March 2003, Page 169, https://doi.org/10.1603/0013-8746(2003)096[0169:BESOAS]2.0.CO;2
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Paul Dangerfield, Andrew Austin, and Graeme Baker CSIRO publishing, Collinwood, Australia 2001, IX + 254 pp.
As the authors point out, Scelio means ‘scoundrel’ or ‘rogue’. It is a species-rich genus of scelionid wasps, with over 225 described species. All members of the genus are parasitoids of eggs of grasshoppers and locusts, Acrididae. Many species have been used in classical biological control attempts, and they have been reared in large numbers from pest species such as Locusta migratoria (L.).
The primary purposes of the book are to revise the Australian fauna of Scelio and to support research on locust pests with an identification key to species. The book succeeds very well in these objectives, but much more is accomplished. Thirty pages are devoted to biology, ecology, and biological control, and 30 more are devoted to host relationships, morphology, and phylogeny. Finally, a materials and methods section details all that is known about collection, dissection, rearing, and surveying parasitism rates.
