Family EUPELMIDAE

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Family EUPELMIDAE

Compiler and date details

July 2012 - Danielle N. Stringer, Sarah Mantel, John T. Jennings & Andrew D. Austin, Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, and the School of Earth and Environmental Science, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

Introduction

The Eupelmidae are a medium-sized family, characterised by the mesopleuron large, convex and longer than high; the spur of the mid tibia usually somewhat enlarged; insertion of mid coxa anterior to the midline of the mesopleuron and at the posterior margin of mesopleuron; the mesoscutum often with a large concave median groove or furrow; and cerci usually placed at or near the apex of the metasoma.

For the most part, eupelmids are primary parasitoids of a variety of insects, often associated with hosts concealed in plant tissue. Calosotinae and Neanastatinae develop primarily on wood-boring beetles, although some species attack various gall-midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae). In contrast, Eupelminae display a much wider host range, among them species of Lepidoptera (moths & butterflies), Coleoptera (beetles), Hemiptera (Coccoidea —scale insects), Orthoptera (crickets and grasshoppers), Blattodea (cockroaches), Mantodea (mantids), and Diptera (flies). They can act as either primary parasitoids or hyperparasitoids (usually through cocoons of braconids). One genus, Anastatus, attacks large eggs of Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Mantodea and Blattodea. Keys to Australasian genera are included in Boucek (1988), while keys to world genera of Calosotinae and Neanastatinae are provided by Gibson (1989), and world genera of Eupelminae by Gibson (1995).

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