''Sycophila'' is a genus of wasp in the family
Eurytomidae
The Eurytomidae are a family within the superfamily Chalcidoidea.
Unlike most chalcidoids, the larvae of many are phytophagous (feeding in stems, seeds, or galls), while others are more typical parasitoids, though even then the hosts are usuall ...
that associates with
fig
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...
s
and
gall
Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to benign tumors or war ...
s of various insects such as
gall wasps
Gall wasps, also wikt:gallfly#Usage notes, traditionally called gallflies, are hymenopterans of the family Cynipidae in the wasp superfamily Cynipoidea. Their common name comes from the galls they induce on plants for larval development. About 1 ...
and
gall midges. It can be distinguished from other eurytomid genera by the elongate
petiole
Petiole may refer to:
*Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem
*Petiole (insect anatomy)
In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...
, the
gaster often being laterally compressed, and the forewing having a broadened marginal vein and dark brown maculae. ''Sycophila'' has a
cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, a cosmopolitan distribution is the range of a taxon that extends across most or all of the surface of the Earth, in appropriate habitats; most cosmopolitan species are known to be highly adaptable to a range of climatic and en ...
.
Species
There are currently around 120 described species.
References
Eurytomidae
Hymenoptera genera
Taxa named by Francis Walker (entomologist)
{{Chalcidoidea-stub