Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Family Megaspilidae

Tiny Parasitic Wasp - Conostigmus - female Megaspilidae Small Wasp - Trichosteresis glabra - female Wasp - Megaspilus - female Wasp - female tiny wasp - female Megaspilid - Trichosteresis glabra Hymenoptera
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 Ceraphronoidea (Ceraphronid and Megaspilid Wasps)
Family Megaspilidae
Numbers
52 spp. in our area, ca. 450 described and ~1000 estimated spp. worldwide; ca. 35 spp. in Canada(1)
Identification
Differs from Ceraphronidae by:
Stigma usually large and semicircular, rarely absent or linear.
Middle tibiae with two apical spurs.
Mesoscutum without a median groove


Megaspilidae Wings
See Also
Wing venation similar and easy to confuse with similarly small aphelopine dryinids. Unlike the dryinids, megaspilid wings have only one (costal) vein and no long, narrow cell. The antennae of megaspilids are also inserted lower on the face.
Works Cited
1.Hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families
Goulet H., Huber J., eds. 1993. Agriculture Canada Publication 1894/E. 668 pp.