The Evanioidea are a small

hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typi ...

n superfamily that includes three extant families, two of which ( Aulacidae and

Gasteruptiidae The Gasteruptiidae are one of the more distinctive families among the apocritan wasps, with surprisingly little variation in appearance for a group that contains around 500 species in two subfamilies (Gasteruptiinae and Hyptiogastrinae) and with ...

) are much more closely related to one another than they are to the remaining family, Evaniidae. The rich fossil record, however, helps fill in the gaps between these lineages. They all share the trait of having 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 ...

attached very high above the hind coxae on the

propodeum Propodeum labelled within the alitrunk of an ant worker The propodeum is a term that can refer to unrelated structures in insects or in mollusks. Insects The first abdominal segment in Apocrita Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants) is known a ...

. It is a poorly known group as a whole, with some 1100 known species in total, and a great many species are still undescribed. While each of the three families differs in biology, within each family, they are remarkably uniform in appearance and habits. The oldest records of the group date to the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...

, and were diverse from the Middle Jurassic to mid

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

, however, during the mid-Cretaceous they were overtaken in diversity by the

Ichneumonoidea The superfamily Ichneumonoidea contains one extinct and three extant families, including the two largest families within Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae and Braconidae. The group is thought to contain as many as 100,000 species, many of which have not ...

, and since the end of the Cretaceous have a relatively scant fossil record.

Classification

Early-diverging families ::: Family

Praeaulacidae Praeaulacidae is an extinct family of Mesozoic parasitic wasps in the suborder Evanioidea. It among the earliest known families of the group and is characterised by more complete wing venation in comparison to other members of the suborder. It h ...

Rasnitsyn, 1975 ::: Family Nevaniidae Zhang & Rasnitsyn, 2007 ::: Family Othniodellithidae Engel & Huang, 2016 Neoevaniodes Engel, 2006 ::: Family Anomopterellidae Rasnitsyn, 1975 : Aulaciformes Grimaldi & Engel, 2005 ::: Family Baissidae Rasnitsyn, 1975 :: Euaulacides Engel, 2006 ::: Family

Ashmead, 1900 :::: Subfamily Hypselogastriinae Engel, 2016 :::: Subfamily Kotujellitinae Rasnitsyn, 1991 :::: Subfamily Hyptiogastrinae Crosskey, 1953 :::: Subfamily Gasteruptiinae Ashmead, 1900 ::: Family Aulacidae Shuckard, 1841 :::: Subfamily Hyptiogastritinae Engel, 2006 ::::: Tribe Archeofoenini Engel, 2017 ::::: Tribe Hyptiogastritini Engel, 2006 :::: Subfamily Aulacinae Shuckard, 1841 ::::: Tribe Electrofoenini Cockerell, 1917 ::::: Tribe Aulacini Shuckard, 1841 : Evaniiformes Grimaldi & Engel, 2005 ::: Family Evaniidae Latreille, 1802

References

External links

Tree of Life Evanioidea
Apocrita superfamilies {{Apocrita-stub