Scelionidae

Scelionidae
Telenomus sp.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Platygastroidea
Family: Scelionidae
Subfamilies

Scelioninae
Teleasinae
Telenominae

The hymenopteran family Scelionidae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species in some 160 genera) of exclusively parasitoid wasps, mostly small (0.5–10 mm), often black, often highly sculptured, with (typically) elbowed antennae that have a 9- or 10-segmented flagellum. Nowadays, it is considered to be a subfamily of the Platygastridae.[1]

They are generally idiobionts, attacking the eggs of many different types of insects, spiders, butterflies (the hackberry emperor, for example)[2] and many are important in biological control. Several genera are wingless, and a few attack aquatic insect eggs underwater.

References

  1. ↑ Aguiar et al. 2013
  2. ↑ Friedlander, Timothy P. (1984). ""General Notes: INSECT PARASITES AND PREDATORS OF HACKBERRY BUTTERFLIES (NYMPHALIDAE: ASTEROCAMPA)"". Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 38: 60–61.
  • Cedar Creek Pinned specimen images.
  • Paper on the Genus Thoron.


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