Megaspilidae

Megaspilidae
Ceraphron halidayi illustration from British Entomology
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Ceraphronoidea
Family: Megaspilidae

The Megaspilidae are a small hymenopteran family with 12 genera in two subfamilies, and some 450 known species, with a great many species still undescribed. It is a poorly known group as a whole, though most are believed to be parasitoids (especially of sternorrhynchan Hemiptera), and a few hyperparasitoids. Many are found in the soil, and of these, a number are wingless.

The family is distinguished from the closely related Ceraphronidae by having a very large stigma in the wing, a relatively constricted metasomal petiole, and three grooves in the mesoscutum.

References

Wikispecies has information related to: Megaspilidae
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