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

Species Torymus californicus - Oak Gall Chalcid

torymid - Torymus californicus - female Torymid with LONG ovipositor from oak apple - Torymus californicus - female Large torymid with long ovipositor - Torymus californicus - female Large torymid with long ovipositor - Torymus californicus - female Large torymid with long ovipositor - Torymus californicus - female Torymid wasp - Torymus californicus - female Torymid wasp - Torymus californicus - female Chalcid wasp - Torymus californicus - female
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 Torymidae
Subfamily Toryminae
Genus Torymus
No Taxon (advenus species group)
Species californicus (Oak Gall Chalcid)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Torymus californicus
Torymus warreni
Size
In the preponderant long-ovipositor morph, body length ranges from 2.2 mm to 5.4 mm. As body length increases, the length of the ovipositor increases disproportionately (i.e. the ratio of ovipositor length to body length gets greater). Nevertheless, even the smallest (2.2 mm) specimens of the long-ovipositor morph have the ovipositor longer than it is in the largest specimens (body length about 4 mm) of the short-ovipositor morph.
Food
Parasitoid of cynipid wasp larvae in oak galls(1)
Works Cited
1.California Insects
Jerry A. Powell, Charles L. Hogue. 1989. University of California Press.