Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Superfamily Cynipoidea

gall on white oak twig - Disholcaspis quercusglobulus A gall wasp?  ID, please. Oak Gall - Disholcaspis canescens Insect Gall - Callirhytis seminator small wasp Oak Gall - Disholcaspis quercusglobulus Galls wasp gall on Quercus garryana - Cynips mirabilis
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon ("Parasitica" - Parasitoid Wasps)
Superfamily Cynipoidea
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Charipidae and Eucoilidae have been sunk into Figitidae(1)(2).
Numbers
5-6 families total (incl. monotypic Australian Austrocynipidae); >800 spp. in our area, ~2000 worldwide(3)(1)
Identification
Mostly small or minute insects with reduced venation. Most species are black and the abdomen is usually shiny and somewhat compressed. Filiform antennae; the pronotum extends back to the tegulae and the ovipositor issues from the anterior apex of the abdomen.
Larval morphology: see(4)
Remarks
Gall makers, gall inquilines or parasites.
Internet References
Cynipoidea In Catalan, with excellent photos
Works Cited
1.Australian Faunal Directory
2.Phylogeny and classification of Hymenoptera
Sharkey M.J. 2007. Zootaxa 1668: 521–548.
3.Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families
Goulet H., Huber J., eds. 1993. Agriculture Canada Publication 1894/E. 668 pp.
4.Comparative morphology of terminal-instar larvae of Cynipoidea: phylogenetic implications
J.L. Nieves-Aldrey, H. Vårdal, F. Ronquist. 2005. Zoologica Scripta 34: 15–36.