Family AGAONIDAE

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Introduction

The Agaonidae are a medium-sized family found in the tropics and subtropics and are generally only collected on figs. The family is characterised by the head lacking a horseshoe-shaped occipital carina (which is typical of Torymidae), the body generally smooth or with only very faint sculpturing, and with at least one of the following characters: mid femur distinctly more slender than either fore or hind leg, or mandibles in female modified into rasp-like structures, or female metasoma modified into terminal 'tail' composed of either ovipositor alone or ovipositor and terminal tergites. In addition, the stigmal vein of the fore wing is often slender and at a right angle to the wing margin. Species are often strongly sexually dimorphic, with males wingless and with reduced appendages and hardly recognisable as wasps.

All agaonids are associated with figs (Ficus), some acting as pollinators (Agaoninae) and others are phytophagous or possibly parasitoids. All species are associated with the fig inflorescences (syconia). The relationship between figs and their agaonine pollinators is an obligate mutualism, since Ficus species can be pollinated only by the right species of fig wasps, and fig wasps are unable to produce progeny outside a narrow spectrum of fig species. The biology of non-pollinator species of Agaonidae is poorly known; however, it is thought that most of these species, which have generally been considered to be parasitoids, are actually phytophagous. The larvae feed on the fig ovaria, or may be seed-eaters or gall-formers within the fig syconia. Keys to Australasian genera are included in Boucek (1988).

Jennings & Austin (2015) list 2 unidentified species from Lord Howe Island in the Australian Museum.

General References

Bouček, Z. 1988. Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). A biosystematic revision of genera of fourteen families, with a reclassification of species. London : CAB International 832 pp.

Jennings, J.T. & Austin, A.D. 2015. Synopsis of the hymenopteran fauna of Lord Howe Island with a preliminary checklist of species. Zootaxa 3931(3): 423–432

History of changes