The Leucospidae (sometimes incorrectly spelled Leucospididae) are a specialized group of

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. ...

s within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, that are

ectoparasitoid In evolutionary ecology, a parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategies within parasi ...

s of aculeate wasps or bees. They are typically

mimics Materialise Mimics is an image processing software for 3D design and modeling, developed by Materialise NV, a Belgian company specialized in additive manufacturing software and technology for medical, dental and additive manufacturing industries ...

of bees or stinging wasps, often black with yellow, red, or white markings, sometimes metallic, with a robust

mesosoma The mesosoma is the middle part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the metasoma. It bears the legs, and, in the case of winged insects, the wings. In hymenopterans of ...

and very strong sculpturing. The hind

femora The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with t ...

are often greatly enlarged, with a row of teeth or serrations along the lower margin as in

Chalcididae The Chalcididae are a moderate-sized family within the Chalcidoidea, composed mostly of parasitoids and a few hyperparasitoids. The family is apparently polyphyletic, though the different subfamilies may each be monophyletic, and some may be elev ...

. The wing has a longitudinal fold. The female ovipositor is sometimes short, but if not, it is recurved and lies along the dorsal side of the

metasoma The metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the digestive tract, respiratory system, and circul ...

, a unique feature. The males are also unusual, in the fusion of many of the metasomal segments to form a capsule-like " carapace". Leucospidae are external parasitoids of larval hymenoptera, mostly solitary bees but some solitary wasps, and there is a case of a hyperparasitoid. The eggs are laid inside the nests of the host and upon hatching, they feed on the host larva. Usually only a single adult parasite emerges from a single host brood cell. ''Leucospis pinna'', which parasitizes the

orchid bee The tribe Euglossini, in the subfamily Apinae, commonly known as orchid bees or euglossine bees, are the only group of corbiculate bees whose non-parasitic members do not all possess eusocial behavior. Description Most of the tribe's species ...

Eulaema meriana ''Eulaema meriana'' is a large-bodied bee species in the tribe Euglossini, otherwise known as the orchid bees. The species is a solitary bee and is native to tropical Central and South America. The male collects fragrances from orchid flowers, wh ...

'', is known to have multiple adults emerging from a single brood cell of the host. ''Leucopsis dorsigera'' is considered a

hyperparasite A hyperparasite, also known as a metaparasite, is a parasite whose host, often an insect, is also a parasite, often specifically a parasitoid. Hyperparasites are found mainly among the wasp-waisted Apocrita within the Hymenoptera, and in two oth ...

, as it is a parasite of '' Xorides'' sp. which in turn is a parasitoid of a cerambycid beetle larva boring inside the stems of apricots. Leucospids are rarely encountered except in areas where their hosts are abundant; in the United States, the best-known species is '' Leucospis affinis'', which parasitizes leafcutter bees. There are four genera with about 130 species which are known, of which nearly 44 are from the New World, mostly from the Neotropics. A fossil species ''Leucospis glaesaria'' has been described from Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

amber from the Dominican Republic. The Leucospidae have traditionally been suggested as a sister group of the Chalcididae, based on morphology, but a 2011 phylogenetic analysis found that the Leucospidae were a monophyletic lineage but with uncertain placement within the Chalcidoidea and not closely related to the Chalcididae. The study found that the genus ''Oodera'' (

Pteromalidae The Pteromalidae are a very large family of mostly parasitoid wasps, with some 3,450 described species in about 640 genera (the number was greater, but many species and genera have been reduced by synonymy in recent years). The subfamily-level d ...

: Cleonyminae) was close to the Leucospidae, a result confirmed by a 2018 study.

References

External links

Universal Chalcidoidea Database
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1933775 Chalcidoidea Apocrita families