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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » "Parasitica" - Parasitoid Wasps » Chalcidoid Wasps (Chalcidoidea) » Leucospidae

Family Leucospidae

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Food · Life Cycle · Works Cited
small wasp or fly? - Leucospis affinis - female Another female Leucospis? - Leucospis affinis - female wasp at gall - Leucospis birkmani - male Chalcid wasp - Leucospis affinis - female Chalcid Wasp - Leucospis affinis - female Leucospis birkmani… I think - Leucospis birkmani - female Leucospis affinis affinis - Leucospis affinis - male Leucospis affinis
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 Chalcidoidea (Chalcidoid Wasps)
Family Leucospidae
Explanation of Names
Leucospidae Fabricius 1775
Numbers
6 spp. in a single genus in our area, >130 spp. in 4 genera worldwide(1)
Size
4-17 mm
Identification
Usually black and yellow/red. Wings folded longitudinally at rest. Ovipositor usually long (not so in L. robertsoni & L. texana) and curved forward and upward. Metafemora greatly swollen and toothed ventrally.(2)
Food
parasitoids of aculeate Hymenoptera (mainly solitary bees, less frequently solitary wasps, e.g. Vespidae and Sphecidae)(1)
Life Cycle
Eggs are deposited externally on the host larva or nearby. The first instar larva does not feed at first but searches the host cell for competitors; only one parasitoid larva survives and develops as an ectoparasitoid sucking the body fluids of the host.(1)
Works Cited
1.Universal Chalcidoidea Database
2.A handbook of the families of Nearctic Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). 2nd Edition
Grissell E.E., Schauff M. E. 1997. Ent. Soc. Wash. 87pp.
Contributed by Richard Leung on 8 May, 2005 - 7:33pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Hartmut Wisch, v belov, PaleoJon
Last updated 10 October, 2023 - 6:19pm

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