Ripiphoridae

Taxobox
name = Wedge-shaped beetles

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = "Ripiphorus diadasiae" male
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Coleoptera
subordo = Polyphaga
infraordo = Cucujiformia
superfamilia = Tenebrionoidea
familia = Ripiphoridae
familia_authority = Gemminger & Harold, 1870
subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies
subdivision =
Hemirhipidiinae
Micholaeminae
Pelecotominae
Ptilophorinae
Ripidiinae
Ripiphorinae
The family Ripiphoridae (formerly spelled Rhipiphoridae) is a cosmopolitan group of beetles commonly known as wedge-shaped beetles containing some 450 species. They are one of the most unusual beetle families, in that they are parasitoids; different groups within the family attack different hosts, but most are associated with bees or vespid wasps, while some others are associated with roaches. They often have abbreviated elytra, and branched antennae.

For those which attack bees, eggs are typically laid on flowers, where they hatch almost immediately into small planidium larvae, which wait for a passing host. They grab onto a bee when it visits the flower, and ride it back to its nest, where they disembark and enter a cell with a host larva. The beetle larva then enters the body of the host larva, where it waits while the larva grows. When the host pupates, the beetle larva migrates to the outside of its body and begins to feed, eventually consuming it.