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Scelionidae
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Scelionidae

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The hymenopteran family Scelionidae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species in some 176 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. It was once considered to be a subfamily of the Platygastridae, but has been revived in the most recent classification of Platygastroidea. thumb They are generally idiobionts, attacking the eggs of various insects, such as butterflies (e.g., the hackberry emperor), and spiders. Many scelionids are imp

Species

FAMILY

  1. KingdomAnimalia
  2. PhylumArthropoda
  3. ClassInsecta
  4. OrderHymenoptera
  5. FamilyScelionidae
Observations recorded499,417

via GBIF

Museum specimens

Specimen records
4,667
With media
444
Family
Scelionidae
Collections
MHNCA, UAM, UCSB, ASU
Recorded in
Mexico, United States

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

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  • References
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The hymenopteran family Scelionidae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species in some 176 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. It was once considered to be a subfamily of the Platygastridae, but has been revived in the most recent classification of Platygastroidea. thumb They are generally idiobionts, attacking the eggs of various insects, such as butterflies (e.g., the hackberry emperor), and spiders. Many scelionids are important in biological control. Several genera are wingless, and a few attack aquatic insect eggs underwater.

==References==

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Scelionidae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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