About

The Strepsiptera (‘twisted wing’) families Elenchidae and Halictophagidae are common in the West African rice ecosystems. They are distinguished by having pseudohalteres in place of the forewing, the large hind wing with few veins, and the flabellate antennal segments (fan shaped; with long thin processes; lying flat on each other like the folds of a fan). Adult male Strepsiptera have eyes unlike those of any other insect. They consist of hundreds to thousands of ommatidia, that each produce a pixel of the entire image. Strepsipterons are endoparasites feeding within insect hosts e.g., leafhoppers and planthoppers where they cause sterility of the insect hosts. In field studies conducted in farmers’ fields in Côte d’Ivoire Halictophagus parasitism of the white leafhopper Cofana spectra averaged 21%.