The Chalcididae are a moderate-sized
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
within the
Chalcidoidea, composed mostly of
parasitoid
In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host (biology), host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionarily stable str ...
s and a few
hyperparasitoids.
The family is apparently
polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...
, though the different subfamilies may each be
monophyletic
In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria:
# the grouping contains its own most recent co ...
, and some may be elevated to family status in the near future. As presently defined, there are over 85 genera and over 1460 species worldwide.
They are often black with yellow, red, or white markings, rarely brilliantly metallic, with a robust
mesosoma
The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings.
Wasps, bees and a ...
and very strong sculpturing. The hind
femora are often greatly enlarged, with a row of teeth or serrations along the lower margin.
One of the more remarkable uses of the muscular hind legs is the species ''Lasiochalcidia igiliensis'', which attacks the predatory larvae of
ant lions, holding the mandibles of the larva spread apart while the wasp injects an egg into the membrane of the exposed throat.
References
External links
Universal Chalcidoidea DatabaseHymis ForumTagged images
Pbase Chalcididae
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Chalcidoidea
Apocrita families
Insects described in 1817
Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille