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Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

Proctotrupidae

Adults minute to small; 3–6 mm long.

Head. Antennae at least usually not geniculate (with a short scape).

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. 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).

British representation. Species in Britain 36; Brachyserphus, Codrus, Cryptocodrus, Cryptoserphus, Disogmus, Paracodrus, Parthenocodrus, Phaenoserphus, Proctotrupes.

Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Parasitica; Superfamily Proctotrupoidea.

Illustrations. • Dysogmus areolator: B. Ent.744. • Dysogmus areolator: B. Ent.744, legend+text. • Dysogmus areolator: B. Ent.744, legend 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’.

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