British Insects: the Families of Hymenoptera
| British Insects: the Families of Hymenoptera | |
Adults minute to small; 3–6 mm long.
Head. Antennae geniculate, or not geniculate.
Thorax. Pronotum long, extending back to the tegulae; vertically grooved to receive the fore femur. Cenchri absent. Wings present. Fore-wings with a conspicuous pterostigma; with very reduced venation; combining greatly reduced venation with a conspicuous, blind-ending stigmal vein, or not combining greatly reduced venation with conspicuous stigmal vein; not combining greatly reduced venation with a conspicuous radial cell. Closed fore-wing cells 1 (the costal). Submarginal cells 0. Discoidal cells 0. Hind-wings without closed cells. Hind femur without a well defined trochantellus. Hind tibiae without specialised spurs.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction. The ‘waist’ simple. Ovipositor of females visibly protruding, or not visibly protruding; adapted for piercing.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; parasitic on hosts selected by the mother (mostly on Coleoptera).
Classification. Species in Britain 36; genera 9 (with Codrus, Cryptoserphus and Phaenoserphus including most of the species). Suborder Apocrita; Series Parasitica; Superfamily Proctotrupoidea.
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 9th April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.