 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Diagnosis |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Diagnosis
All legs with tarsi
5-segmented; fore tibial spur curved and bifid.
Antenna usually with 5-7 funicular segments; all the species in this key
have 2
anelli and 6 funicular segments.
Postmarginal
and stigmal
veins well-developed.
In general, Pteromalidae are recognised within the Chalcidoidea by lacking
the characters which define the other families, and they are quite difficult
to diagnose.
Fortunately, in terms of parasitoids of leafmining agromyzids in SE Asia,
it is only necessary to distinguish them from Eulophidae,
and the characters given above will serve to do that.
Superfamily : Chalcidoidea
Classification
Overview
The biologies and host-associations of pteromalids are extremely varied, but most species are idiobionts, many developing as ectoparasitoids of larvae and pupae of Lepidoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. Concealed hosts, such as leaf-miners and gall-formers are commonly attacked. Other species are idiobiont endoparasitoids, commonly of lepidopterous pupae. Most members of the tribe Miscogasterini are koinobiont larval-pupal parasitoids of Diptera: Agromyzidae, and Tomicobia species develop on adult Coleoptera. A number of pteromalids are predatory rather than parasitic, and still others are phytophagous. Thus almost the whole range of biologies found in the Chalcidoidea is present in the Pteromalidae.
Identification
Keys to the subfamilies and genera of Pteromalidae have been supplied for Europe (Graham, 1969), Australasia (Boucek, 1988) and North America (Boucek & Heydon 1997). Noyes 2002; 2003 provided an electronic catalogue for the entire Chalcidoidea.