Chrysolampidae is a small

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 ...

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 within the

Chalcidoidea Chalcid wasps (, , for their metallic colour) are insects within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, part of the order Hymenoptera. The superfamily contains some 22,500 known species, and an estimated total diversity of more than 500,000 species, m ...

. The family is related to a clade that includes the

Eucharitidae The Eucharitidae are a family of parasitic wasps. Eucharitid wasps are members of the superfamily Chalcidoidea and consist of four subfamilies: Akapalinae, Eucharitinae, Gollumiellinae, and Oraseminae. Most of the 42 genera and >400 species o ...

Perilampidae The Perilampidae are a small family (biology), family within the Chalcidoidea, composed mostly of hyperparasite, hyperparasitoids. The family is closely related to the Eucharitidae, Chrysolampidae, and Eutrichosomatidae. As presently defined, si ...

and Eutrichosomatidae. This group of wasp families have first-instar larvae that are called " planidia". Adult females lay eggs on vegetation (often flowers) frequented by their host insects; after hatching, the planidia attach themselves to adults of the host, which then carries some of them to nests of the host. Here they parasitize the host larvae or pupae, before developing into winged adults.Heraty, J., Derafshan, H., & Moghaddam, M. (2019). Review of the Philomidinae Ruschka (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Perilampidae), with description of three new species. Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny, 77, 39-56
DOIPDF
/ref>Noyes, J.S. and Pitkin, B.R. (2003). Universal Chalcidoidea Database: Notes on families

/ref>

Subfamiles and genera

Chrysolampinae * '' Austrotoxeuma'' (Australia and New Zealand) * '' Brachyelatus'' (Australia) * '' Chrysolampus'' (North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) * '' Chrysomalla'' (Asia, Europe, North Africa, Western USA, and Australia) * '' Elatomorpha'' (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Morocco) * '' Parelatus'' (Australia) Philomidinae * '' Aperilampus'' (Afrotropics) * '' Philomides'' (Afrotropics, southern Palearctic and Indomalaya) * '' Vidlinus'' (Afrotropics)

Distribution

The distribution of the Chrysolampinae includes steppe and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

regions in western North America, Europe, North Africa and Central Asia, mesic forests in Europe and Asia, and tropical forests in Australia and the Philippines.Darling, D.C. (1986). Revision of the new world Chrysolampinae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). The Canadian Entomologist, 118(9), 913-940
DOIPDF
/ref> Philomidinae are found in a range of vegetation types in the

Afrotropics The Afrotropical realm is one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms. It includes Sub-Saharan Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, the island of Madagascar, and the islands of the western Indian Ocean. It was formerly known as the Ethiopi ...

, southern

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

and

Indomalaya The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

Biology

Knowledge of the biology of the Chrysolampidae is limited: A few species of the Chrysolampinae are known to be parasitoids of beetles, including weevils of the genus '' Tychius'' and a pollen beetle '' Meligethes pedicularius''. '' Aperilampus varians'' is a parasitoid of the pupa of '' Halictus africanus''; other species of the Philomidinae are probably also parasitoids of ground-nesting bees.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q118098648 Chalcidoidea Apocrita families