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Parasitic wasp



Parasitic wasp

Ichneumonidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Diversity

See text.

The term parasitic wasp refers to a large, artificial assemblage of Hymenopteran superfamilies which are primarily parasitoids of other animals, mostly other arthropods. Many of them, such as the family Braconidae, are considered beneficial because they control populations of agricultural pests.

Use of the term

Historically, the classification system of Hymenoptera included two divisions within the suborder Apocrita: one of these, the Parasitica, is (or should effectively be considered) synonymous with "parasitic wasp". However, the use of the name Parasitica (or its alternative, Terebrantia) has been phased out in recent years, as it is a paraphyletic grouping, and most modern classifications explicitly reject the use of any groups that are not monophyletic.

Diversity

The traditional superfamilies in the "Parasitica" are:

  • Superfamily Ceraphronoidea
  • Superfamily Chalcidoidea
  • Superfamily Cynipoidea
  • Superfamily Evanioidea
  • Superfamily Ichneumonoidea
  • Superfamily Megalyroidea
  • Superfamily Mymarommatoidea - (sometimes called Serphitoidea)
  • Superfamily Platygastroidea
  • Superfamily Proctotrupoidea
  • Superfamily Stephanoidea
  • Superfamily Trigonaloidea

  Outside of the Parasitica proper, there are a few other groups that could be included in this general category; most of the members of the superfamily Chrysidoidea, and most of the families in the superfamily Vespoidea such as Bradynobaenidae, Mutillidae, Rhopalosomatidae, Sapygidae, Scoliidae, Sierolomorphidae, Tiphiidae, and a few species of Pompilidae. Most of these groups are ectoparasitoids. There is only one small parasitic family, Orussidae, among the Symphyta.

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Parasitic_wasp". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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