The Megaspilidae 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 family with 13 genera in two subfamilies, and some 450 known species, with a great many species still undescribed. It is a poorly known group as a whole, though most are believed to be

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 (especially of

sternorrhyncha The Sternorrhyncha suborder of the Hemiptera contains the aphids, whitefly, whiteflies, and scale insects, groups which were traditionally included in the now-obsolete order "Homoptera". The name "Sternorrhyncha" refers to the rearward position of ...

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...

), and a few hyperparasitoids. Many are found in the soil, and of these, a number are wingless. The family is distinguished from the closely related Ceraphronidae by having a very large stigma in the wing, a relatively constricted

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 ...

l petiole, and three grooves in the mesoscutum. The largest genus within Megaspilidae is '' Dendrocerus''. The second largest genus is '' Conostigmus''.

Genera

These 13 genera belong to the family Megaspilidae: * '' Aetholagynodes'' * '' Archisynarsis'' * '' Conostigmus'' * '' Creator'' * '' Dendrocerus'' * '' Holophleps'' * '' Lagynodes'' * '' Megaspilus'' * '' Platyceraphron'' * '' Prolagynodes'' * '' Trassedia'' * '' Trichosteresis'' * '' Typhlolagynodes''

References

External links

Ceraphronoidea Apocrita families {{Wasp-stub