The

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 of

parasitoid wasp Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran Superfamily (zoology), superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, ...

s, Platygastroidea, has often been treated as a lineage within the superfamily

Proctotrupoidea Proctotrupoidea is a hymenopteran superfamily containing seven extant families, though others have been recognized in the past, most of these having been removed to a recently erected superfamily Diaprioidea. Of the remaining families, only Proct ...

, but most classifications since 1977 have recognized it as an independent group within the Proctotrupomorpha. It is presently has some 4000 described species.Talamas EJ, Johnson NF, Shih C, Ren D (2019) Proterosceliopsidae: A new family of Platygastroidea from Cretaceous amber. In: Talamas E (Eds) Advances in the Systematics of Platygastroidea II. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 73: 3-38. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.73.32256 They are exclusively parasitic in nature. The family Scelionidae was briefly considered to be a subfamily of the

Platygastridae The hymenopteran family Platygastridae (sometimes incorrectly spelled Platygasteridae) is a moderate-sized group (about 2000 described species) of exclusively parasitoid wasps, mostly very small (1–2 mm), black, and shining, with genicul ...

, though subsequent analyses have reversed this decision. Chen et al (2021) recognizes eight families, including five new extant families ( Geoscelionidae, Janzenellidae, Neuroscelionidae, Nixoniidae, and Sparasionidae) and one extinct family † Proterosceliopsidae, known from fossils found in

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 ...

amber. Members of the group are known from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...

to present. The ancestral hosts of the group are orthopterans, with various lineages switching hosts to other insects. Trissolcus on Chinavia eggs

References

External links

Bugguide.net. Superfamily Platygastroidea
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1942066 Apocrita superfamilies