''Xenos'' is a genus of insects belonging to the family

Xenidae Xenidae is a family of twisted-winged insects in the order Strepsiptera The Strepsiptera () are an order of insects with eleven extant families that include about 600 described species. They are endoparasites of other insects, such as bees, wa ...

. The word derives from the Greek word for strange. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus is ''

Xenos vesparum ''Xenos vesparum'' is a parasitic insect species of the order Strepsiptera that are endoparasites of paper wasps in the genus ''Polistes'' (most commonly ''Polistes dominula)'' that was first described in 1793. Like other members of this family, ...

'', first described by Pietro Rossi in 1793. The females are permanent

entomophagous Entomophagy (, from Greek ἔντομον ', 'insect', and φαγεῖν ', 'to eat') is the practice of eating insects. An alternative term is insectivory. Terms for organisms that practice entomophagy are ''entomophage'' and ''insectivore'' ...

endoparasite Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The en ...

s of ''

Polistes ''Polistes'' is a cosmopolitan genus of paper wasps and the only genus in the tribe Polistini. Vernacular names for the genus include umbrella wasps, coined by Walter Ebeling in 1975 to distinguish it from other types of paper wasp, in refer ...

'' paper wasps, spending their whole lives in the wasp's

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

Xenos peckii eye and ultrathin digital camera

Species

These 33 species belong to the genus ''Xenos'': * '' Xenos afer'' Pasteels, 1950 (Africa) * '' Xenos americanus'' (Brèthes, 1923) (South America) * '' Xenos argentinus'' Brèthes, 1923 (South America) * '' Xenos boharti'' Hofmann, 1965 (South America) * '' Xenos bohlsi'' Hoffmann, 1914 (South America) * '' Xenos bonairensis'' Brèthes, 1923 (South America) * '' Xenos circularis'' Kifune & Maeta, 1985 (Asia) * '' Xenos colombiensis'' Cook, Mayorga-Ch & Sarmiento, 2020 * '' Xenos dianshuiwengi'' Yang, 1999 * '' Xenos formosanus'' Kifune & Maeta, 1985 (Asia) * '' Xenos hamiltoni'' Kathirithamby & Hughes, 2006 (Central America and Mexico) * '' Xenos hebraei'' Kinzelbach, 1978 (Palearctic) * '' Xenos hospitus'' Oliveira & Kogan, 1962 (South America) * '' Xenos hunteri'' (Pierce, 1909) (North America) * '' Xenos indespectus'' Oliveira & Kogan, 1962 (South America) * '' Xenos iviei'' Kifune, 1983 * '' Xenos kifunei'' Cook & Mathison, 1997 (North America) * '' Xenos moutoni'' Buysson, 1903 (Southern Asia and temperate Asia) * '' Xenos niger'' Pasteels, 1950 (Africa) * '' Xenos nigrescens'' Brues, 1903 (North America and South America) * '' Xenos oxyodontes'' Nakase & Kato, 2013 (Southern Asia) * '' Xenos pallidus'' Brues, 1903 (North America) * '' Xenos peckii'' Kirby, 1813 * '' Xenos peruensis'' Kifune, 1979 (South America) * '' Xenos provesparum'' Kifune, 1986 (Southern Asia and tropical Asia) * '' Xenos ropalidiae'' (Kinzelbach, 1975) * '' Xenos rostratus'' Trois, 1984 (South America) * ''

Xenos rubiginosi __NOTOC__ Xenos may refer to: * Xenos (Greek), a Greek word meaning "stranger" or "alien" * Xenos (insect), a genus of insects in the order Strepsiptera * Xenos (graphics chip), a custom graphics processing unit (GPU) designed by ATI, used in the X ...

'' (Pierce, 1909) (North America) * '' Xenos stuckenbergi'' Pasteels, 1956 (Africa) * ''

'' Rossi, 1793 (Palearctic and Africa) * '' Xenos yamaneorum'' Kifune & Maeta, 1985 (Asia) * '' Xenos yangi'' Dong, Liu & Li, 2022 * '' Xenos zavattarii'' (Pierce, 1911) (Africa)

References

Strepsiptera Endoparasites Insect genera Taxa named by Pietro Rossi Parasites of Hymenoptera {{Parasite-insect-stub