Family AULACIDAE

Museums

Regional Maps

• Smith, D.R. 2001. World catalog of the family Aulacidae (Hymenoptera). Contributions on Entomology, International 4: 263-319

Introduction

The Aulacidae are readily distinguished from evaniids and gasteruptiids by the presence of fore wing vein 2m-cu (Gauld & Bolton 1996). Aulacus and Pristaulacus occur worldwide (except New Zealand and Madagascar). Although Pristaulacus was found by Turissi et al. (2009) to by monophyletic, Aulacus was consistently paraphyletic.
Host records for Australian species are scarce, but records from other continents indicate that they are endoparasitoids of wood-boring wasps (Xiphydriidae) and beetles (Cerambycidae and Buprestidae) (Carlson 1979; Gauld & Bolton 1996; Smith 2001; Jennings & Austin 2004). For Aulacus, host data indicate they mostly parasitise xiphydriid wasps in the Northern Hemisphere and cerambycids in the Southern Hemisphere, whereas almost all records for Pristaulacus indicate that their hosts are wood-boring beetles (Jennings & Austin 2004).

General References

Carlson, R.W. 1979. Superfamily Evanioidea. pp. 1109-1118 in Krombein, K.V., Hurd, P.D., Smith, D.R. & Burks, B.O. (eds). Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institute Press Vol. 2 1199-2209 pp.

Gauld, I. & Bolton, B. (eds) 1996. The Hymenoptera. Oxford : Oxford University Press 2nd Edn., 332 pp.

Jennings, J.T. & Austin, A.D. 2004. Biology and host relationships of aulacid and gasteruptiid wasps (Hymenoptera: Aulacidae): a review. pp. 187-215 in Rajmohana, K., Sudheer, K., Girish Kumar, P. & Santhosh, S. (eds). Perspectives on Biosystematics and Biodiversity. Kerala, India : University of Calicut 666 pp.

Jennings, J.T. & Deans, A.R. 2006. Aulacidae. Version 22 May 2006. http://tolweb.org/Aulacidae/23534/2006.05.22 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/.

Smith, D.R. 2001. World catalog of the family Aulacidae (Hymenoptera). Contributions on Entomology, International 4: 263-319

Turrisi G.F, Jennings, J.T. & Vilhelmsen, L. 2009. Phylogeny and generic concepts of the parasitoid wasp family Aulacidae (Hymenoptera: Evanioidea). Invertebrate Systematics 23: 27-59

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