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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Adults minute to small; 1–6 mm long.
Head. Antennal segments 11–15. Antennae geniculate.
Thorax. Pronotum long, extending back to the tegulae; vertically grooved to receive the fore femur. The spiracle cover lobe of the pronotum not margined with close fine hairs. Cenchri absent. Wings present, or absent (aptery sometimes occurring in both sexes of the same species). Fore-wings without a pterostigma; with very reduced venation (though exhibiting both marginal and submarginal veins); combining greatly reduced venation with a conspicuous, blind-ending stigmal vein. Closed fore-wing cells 0, or 1 (the costal?). Submarginal cells 0. Discoidal cells 0. Hind-wings without closed cells. Mid and hind tibiae with two spurs. 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 not visibly protruding; adapted for piercing.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; parasitic on hosts selected by the mother (mainly on Diptera (especially tachinids, including some hyper-parasites), also on Lepidoptera and Coleoptera).
British representation. Species in Britain about 300; Acanopsilus, Aconosema, Aclista, Acropiesta, Aneurhynchus, Anommatium, Aprestes, Basalys, Belyta, Cinetus, Corynopria, Diapria, Diphora, Entomacis, Idiotypa, Ismarus, Labolips, Macrohynnis, Miota, Monelata, Oxylabis, Pamis, Pantoclis, Pantolyta, Paramesius, Paroxylabis, Platymischus, Polypeza, Psilomma, Psilus, Rhynchopsilus, Scorpioteleia, Spilomicrus, Synacra, Synbelyta, Tetramopria, Trichopria, Zygota.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Parasitica; Superfamily Proctotrupoidea.
Illustrations. • Psilus fuscipennis (Curtis) (B. Ent. 341). • Psilus fuscipennis (detail: B. Ent. 341). • Psilus fuscipennis (dissections: B. Ent. 341). • Psilus fuscipennis (B. Ent. 341, legend+text). This represents the original Curtis description of the species fuscipennis. It may also represent the original description of the genus Galesus (now a synonym of Psilus), which Curtis here (1831) referred to a Haliday MSS; but Fitton et al. (1978) cite the authority of Galesus as "Haliday in Curtis, 1829", perhaps a reference to the first edition of Curtis's Guide. • Psilus fuscipennis: B. Ent. 341, text cont.. • Ismarus dorsiger (Curtis): B. Ent. 380. • Ismarus dorsiger: B. Ent. 380, legend+text. Seemingly the original description of dorsiger, now referred to Ismarus. • Ismarus dorsiger: B. Ent. 380, text cont.. • Diapria conica, female: Stephens 1846.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, 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. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
