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

Genus Monodontomerus

Representative Images

small wasp - Monodontomerus - female Aculeata - Monodontomerus Chalcid wasp? - Monodontomerus - female Chalcid wasp - Torymidae - Monodontomerus - female Torymus sp? - Monodontomerus thorpi Monodontomerus - female Chalcidoid - Monodontomerus - female Monodontomerus thorpi in Maryland - Monodontomerus thorpi

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 Monodontomerinae
Genus Monodontomerus

Explanation of Names

Monodontomerus Westwood 1833

Numbers

18 spp. in our area(1), 44 spp. worldwide(2)

Identification

Prominent tooth under hind femur near tip, presumably the origin of the genus name.

Range

in our area, mostly sw. US(3)

Food

hosts in our area include various hymenopterans [bees (Dianthidium, Megachile, Hoplitis...), eumenine wasps], gall wasps (Antistrophus), braconids (Aleiodes)], beetles (weevils of several families, Bruchinae, buprestids), caterpillars [Malacosoma fragile (Lasiocampidae), Eucaterva variaria (Geometridae)], dipterans [Deopalpus contiguus, Tachinidae]; worldwide, a wide variety of insects(3)

Works Cited

1.A Revision of New World Monodontomerus Westwood (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Torymidae)
Grissell EE. 2000. Contributions of the American Entomological Institute 32 (1): 1-90.
2.Universal Chalcidoidea Database
3.A review of North American species of Microdontomerus Crawford (Torymidae: Hymenoptera)
Grissell E.E. 2005. J. Hymenoptera Res. 14(1): 22-65.