''Ismarus'' is a genus of

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

s belonging to the family

Ismaridae Ismaridae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hymenoptera. About 50 species are known in this small relictual group; all the species for which the biology is known appear to be hyperparasitoids that parasitize Dryinidae (that attack le ...

. About 50 species are known in this small relictual group, all of which appear to be

hyperparasitoid A hyperparasite, also known as a metaparasite, is a parasite whose host, often an insect, is also a parasite, often specifically a parasitoid. Hyperparasites are found mainly among the wasp-waisted Apocrita within the Hymenoptera, and in two othe ...

s that parasitize

Dryinidae Dryinidae is a cosmopolitan family of solitary wasps. Its name comes from the Greek ''drys'' for oak: Latreille named the type genus '' Dryinus'' because the first species was collected on an oak tree in Spain. The larvae are parasitoids of the ...

(that attack

leafhopper Leafhopper is the common name for any species from the family (biology), family Cicadellidae: based on the type genus ''Cicadella''. These minute insects, colloquially known as hoppers, are plant feeders that suck plant sap from grass, shrubs, or ...

s). ''Ismarus'' was formerly included in the family

Diapriidae The Diapriidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. These tiny insects have an average length of 2–4 mm and never exceed 8 mm. They typically attack larvae and pupae of a wide range of insects, especially flies. The about 2,300 described ...

, but differ from diapriid wasps by lacking a facial projection from which the antenna arise, and characterized by various degrees of fusion of the

metasoma The metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or tagma (biology), tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the digestive tract, respiratory sy ...

terga A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; : ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The anterior edge is called the 'base' and posterior edge is called the 'apex' or 'margin'. ...

Taxonomy

Its parent family, Ismaridae, previously included two genera, ''Ismarus'' and ''Szelenyioprioides'', but the latter genus was synonymized with the diapriid genus '' Spilomicrus''.V. Kolyada & V. Chemyreva (2016) Revision Of Species Of The Genus ''Ismarus'' Haliday, 1835 (Hymenoptera: Diaprioidea: Ismaridae) Of The Russian Fauna. ''Far Eastern Entomologist'' 318: 1-19.

Gallery

Ismarus africanus (10.3897-afrinvertebr.59.24403) Figure 1.jpg, ''Ismarus africanus'' Ismarus nigrofasciatus (10.3897-afrinvertebr.59.24403) Figure 10.jpg, ''Ismarus nigrofasciatus'' Ismarus notaulicus (10.3897-afrinvertebr.59.24403) Figure 11.jpg, ''Ismarus notaulicus'' Ismarus steineri (10.3897-afrinvertebr.59.24403) Figure 13.jpg, ''Ismarus steineri''

References

Parasitica Hymenoptera genera Hyperparasites Taxa named by Alexander Henry Haliday {{Apocrita-stub