Allograpta
Taxonomy
This page represents the following TreeOfLife-200M taxonomic path.[1]
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Diptera
- Family: Syrphidae
- Genus: Allograpta
Visual Description
Members of the genus Allograpta are hoverflies characterized by their slender, often brightly patterned bodies. Observations of specimens in the TreeOfLife-200M dataset reveal a distinct abdominal pattern, typically featuring yellow or orange markings against a darker background, which often includes oblique or transverse bands.[1] The head is relatively large with prominent, holoptic or dichoptic eyes depending on the sex, and the wings are generally clear with well-defined venation typical of the family Syrphidae.[1]
Ecology and Importance
Allograpta is a genus of hoverflies (family Syrphidae) that includes species known for their role as aphidophagous predators.[2] Research in Neotropical agroecosystems, such as wheat fields in Brazil, has highlighted Allograpta exotica as a significant biological control agent.[3] This species exhibits a broad prey spectrum, feeding on various aphids, mites, thrips, and small caterpillars.[3]
Studies suggest that native forest fragments near agricultural areas serve as essential refuges for these hoverflies, particularly during early crop stages when aphid populations are low.[3]
Gallery
References
- 1 2 3 Dataset view for Animalia / Arthropoda / Insecta / Diptera / Syrphidae / Allograpta constructed from imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M records under this taxonomic path. Hugging Face Datasets. https://huggingface.co/datasets/imageomics/TreeOfLife-200M.
- ↑ Allograpta. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allograpta. Accessed 2026-07-15.
- 1 2 3 Orcial Ceolin Bortolotto; Ayres de Oliveira Menezes; Adriano Thibes Hoshino; Thiago Augusto Campos. <b>Distance from the edge of forest fragments influence the abundance of aphidophagous hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) in wheat fields. Acta Scientiarum Agronomy. 2016. https://doi.org/10.4025/actasciagron.v38i2.27711.