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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Vespoidea » Rhopalosomatidae

Family Rhopalosomatidae

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Season · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · See Also · Works Cited

Some kind of wasp - Rhopalosoma nearcticum

Ophioninae - Rhopalosoma nearcticum - female

Rhopalosoma at porchlight - Rhopalosoma nearcticum - female

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)

Superfamily Vespoidea

Family Rhopalosomatidae

Explanation of Names

Rhopalosomatidae Brues 1922

Numbers

5 spp. in 3 genera in our area; 74 spp. in 4 extant genera worldwide (plus 3 spp. in 2 extinct genera)(1)(2)(3)

Size

Forewing 4.2‒17 mm(1)

Identification

revised in (4) • key to genera in (1)

Range

In NA, mostly se. US (north to NY-ON-MN, west to KS-TX); globally, primarily tropical(1), none in the Palaeartic

Season

mostly summer

Food

ectoparasitoids of cricket nymphs(2)(1) (usual hosts seem to be in the subfamily Hapithinae); it is not known whether adults feed

Life Cycle

Larvae

Remarks

rarely encountered, probably active at night

See Also

Olixon banksii may be mistaken for a velvet ant or a bethylid

Rhopalosoma nearcticum looks like o some ichneumonids (Ophioninae, Netelia)

Works Cited

1.	Systematics of little known parasitic wasps of the family Rhopalosomatidae (Hymenoptera: Vespoidea) Guidotti A.E. 1999.

2.	Systematic revision of the New World Olixon Cameron with descriptions of O. melinsula sp. n.... Lohrmann V., Fox M., Solis M., Krogmann L. 2012. Dtsch. Entomol. Z. 59: 259-275.

3.	Lohrmann, V. & A.S. Kroupa (2019) The Rhopalosomatidae of the World

4.	A revision of the Rhopalosomatidae Townes H.K. 1977. Contrib. Am. Ent. Inst. 15, 34 pp.

Contributed by Nick Fensler on 16 August, 2006 - 10:12pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Robin McLeod, Chuck Entz, waspGeorge, v belov, metrioptera, PaleoJon
Last updated 30 October, 2023 - 10:43pm

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