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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Chalcid Wasps.
Adults minute to small; 1.5–5.5 mm long.
Head. Antennae geniculate.
Thorax. Pronotum short, not extending back to the tegulae. Pronotum wide and quadrate, almost as wide as the (often coarsely punctured) mesoscutum. The mesepisternum not enlarged to obscure the mesepimeron (and the mid-tibial spur rarely larger than the hind one). Cenchri absent. Wings not folding longitudinally. Fore-wings with very reduced venation (reduced to a proximal submarginal vein, which becomes marginal distally before giving off the stigmal vein); combining greatly reduced venation with a conspicuous, blind-ending stigmal vein. Closed fore-wing cells 0. Submarginal cells 0. Discoidal cells 0. Hind-wings without closed cells. The hind coxae not conspicuously larger than the front ones. Fore tibiae with a curved spur. Hind femur not toothed below; with a clear trochantellus. Hind tibiae not curved around the femora; without specialised spurs. Tarsi 5 segmented.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction. Visible abdominal segments highly metallic in appearance. Ovipositor of females visibly protruding; adapted for piercing.
Larvae. Larvae with segmented legs; parasitic on hosts selected by the mother (hyper-parasitic on tachinid and ichneumonid parasites).
British representation. Species in Britain 7; Perilampus.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Parasitica; Superfamily Chalcidoidea.
Illustrations. • Perilampus ruficornis (Perilampinae: Pale-footed Pallipes: B. Ent. 158). • Perilampus ruficornis (detail: B. Ent. 158). • Perilampus ruficornis (dissections: B. Ent. 158). • Perilampus ruficornis: B. Ent. 158, legend+text. This contains the type description of the synonym, P. pallipes Curtis. • Perilampus ruficornis: B. Ent. 158, text cont.. • Perilampus micans: 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’.
