Family TORYMIDAE

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Introduction

The Torymidae are a fairly large group with more than 130 species decribed for Australia. Torymids are characterised by the cerci situated on distinct peg-like structures; the occiput (back of the head) with a horseshoe-shaped carina; stigmal vein in fore wing either at a right angle to the wing margin and the stigma distinctly swollen (Megastigminae), or short and less than one-fifth the length of marginal vein (Toryminae, Monodontomerinae); and the ovipositor usually strongly exserted and curving upward.

Many species are associated with plant tissue, either through parasitising hosts hidden with plant tissue, or through phytophagy. Megastigminae are almost all phytophagous, feeding on seeds of mainly Pinaceae and Rosaceae, although a few species are known to parasitise gall-inducing Cynipidae. Torymines mostly attack gall-inducing insects, mainly Cecidomyiidae (gall flies) and Cynipidae, but also Tephritidae (Diptera) and Psyllidae (Hemiptera). Some torymines are phytophagous, or perhaps inqulines in galls. A few species are similar to some eurytomids in that the larva will feed upon anything it finds inside the gall, including gall-inducing insects, inquilines, and plant tissue. Monodontomerinae attack the larvae of several holometabolous orders, including Diptera (flies), Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and Coleoptera (beetles), many of them being parasitoids of solitary wasps and bees. One group, the Podagrioni, are all parasitoids within the oothecae (egg cases) of Mantidae (praying mantids). A few species are phytophagous pests of plants.

Boucek (1988) recognised three subfamilies, but Grissell (1995) subsequently reduced the number to two: Torymidae and Megastigminae. Keys to Australasian genera are included in Boucek (1988). More recently, Grissell (1995) provided updated keys to world genera of Toryminae.

Jennings & Austin (2015) list one 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.

Grissell, E.E. 1995. Toryminae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Torymidae): a redefinition, generic classification, and annotated world catalog of species. Memoirs on Entomology, International 2: 1-470

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

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