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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Adults small to large; 4–26 mm long.
Head. Antennal segments 13 (males), or 14 (females). Antennae not geniculate.
Thorax. Pronotum long, extending back to the tegulae. The spiracle cover lobe of the pronotum margined with close fine hairs. Cenchri absent. Fore-wings with a conspicuous pterostigma; with the venation well developed (more or less, but modified). Hind-wings without closed cells. Hind-wings without an anal lobe. Hind femur with a clear trochantellus. Hind tibiae without specialised spurs.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction. The gaster with the first two segments not fused (partly hinged); attached high on the propodeum. Ovipositor of females visibly protruding (often very long); adapted for piercing.
Larvae. Larvae with segmented legs; parasitic on hosts selected by the mother, or parasitic on hosts selected by the mother and predacious (the family as a whole parasitizes solitary and less often social bees, sphecoids and other wasps).
General comments. Adults with a neck-like prolongation of the propleuron, swollen hind tibiae, and a long gaster.
British representation. Species in Britain 5; Gasteruption.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Parasitica; Superfamily Evanioidea.
Illustrations. • Gasteruption assectator (Short-tailed Foenus: B. Ent. 423). • Gasteruption assectator (detail: B. Ent. 423). • Gasteruption assectator (dissections: B. Ent. 423). • Gasteruption assectator: B. Ent. 423, legend+text). • Gasteruption assectator: B. Ent. 423, text cont..
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’.
