Superfamily ICHNEUMONOIDEA

Braconidae

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Introduction

This section of the Australian Faunal Directory deals with the parasitic hymenopteran family Braconidae. It is part of an ongoing collaborative project with ABRS to complete the databasing of the Australian Hymenoptera. An overview of the Hymenoptera found in Australia is given in Naumann (1991).

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Mike Sharkey, Bob Wharton and Jim Whitfield for their help and advice in providing information on the generic placement and status of some higher level groups of Braconidae. We also thank the members of the insect evoloution and ecology group, in the Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, Adelaide University for their support and encouragement; and the Australian Biological Resources Study for funding towards the completion of the Australian braconid checklist and Keith Houston and Kathy Tsang for editorial assistance.

Limital Area

Distribution data in the Directory is by political and geographic region descriptors and serves as a guide to the distribution of a taxon. For details of a taxon's distribution, the reader should consult the cited references (if any) at genus and species levels.

Australia is defined as including Lord Howe Is., Norfolk Is., Cocos (Keeling) Ils, Christmas Is., Ashmore and Cartier Ils, Macquarie Is., Australian Antarctic Territory, Heard and McDonald Ils, and the waters associated with these land areas of Australian political responsibility. Political areas include the adjacent waters.

Terrestrial geographical terms are based on the drainage systems of continental Australia, while marine terms are self explanatory except as follows: the boundary between the coastal and oceanic zones is the 200 m contour; the Arafura Sea extends from Cape York to 124 DEG E; and the boundary between the Tasman and Coral Seas is considered to be the latitude of Fraser Island, also regarded as the southern terminus of the Great Barrier Reef.

Distribution records, if any, outside of these areas are listed as extralimital. The distribution descriptors for each species are collated to genus level. Users are advised that extralimital distribution for some taxa may not be complete.

General References

Naumann, I.D. 1991. Hymenoptera (Wasps, bees, ants, sawflies). pp. 916-1000 in CSIRO (ed). The Insects of Australia. A textbook for students and research workers. Carlton : Melbourne University Press.

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