Scelioninae

Scelioninae is a subfamily of wasps in the family Platygastridae. It is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species in some 160 genera) of exclusively parasitoid wasps, mostly small (0.5–10 mm), often black, often highly sculptured, with (typically) elbowed antennae that have a 9- or 10-segmented flagellum. It was formerly considered to be a family Scelionidae but has been reclassified as a subfamily of the Platygastridae.[1]

Scelioninae
Telenomus sp.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Platygastridae
Subfamily: Scelioninae
Haliday, 1839

The subfamilies Scelioninae, Teleasinae, and Telenominae were formerly in the family Scelionidae, but Scelionidae was combined with the family Platygastridae because of genetic similarities. The name Platygastridae was retained for the resulting family because of seniority.[2]

Biology

They are generally idiobionts, attacking the eggs of many different types of insects, spiders, butterflies (the hackberry emperor, for example)[3] and many are important in biological control. Several genera are wingless, and a few attack aquatic insect eggs underwater.

See also

References
  1. Aguiar et al. 2013
  2. Sharkey, M.J. (2007). Phylogeny and Classification of Hymenoptera. Zootaxa. 309. pp. 13–48.
  3. Friedlander, Timothy P. (1984). "General Notes: INSECT PARASITES AND PREDATORS OF HACKBERRY BUTTERFLIES (NYMPHALIDAE: ASTEROCAMPA)". Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 38: 60–61.
  • Cedar Creek Pinned specimen images.
  • Paper on the Genus Thoron.


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