The Hymenopteran superfamily of

parasitoid wasp Parasitoid wasps are a large group of hymenopteran superfamilies, with all but the wood wasps (Orussoidea) being in the wasp-waisted Apocrita. As parasitoids, they lay their eggs on or in the bodies of other arthropods, sooner or later causin ...

s, Platygastroidea, has often been treated as a lineage within the superfamily Proctotrupoidea, but most classifications since 1977 have recognized it as an independent group within the Proctotrupomorpha. It is presently has some 4000 described species.Talamas EJ, Johnson NF, Shih C, Ren D (2019) Proterosceliopsidae: A new family of Platygastroidea from Cretaceous amber. In: Talamas E (Eds) Advances in the Systematics of Platygastroidea II. Journal of Hymenoptera Research 73: 3-38. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.73.32256 They are exclusively parasitic in nature. The family Scelionidae was briefly considered to be a subfamily of the Platygastridae, though subsequent analyses have reversed this decision. Chen et al (2021) recognizes eight families, including five new extant families ( Geoscelionidae, Janzenellidae, Neuroscelionidae, Nixoniidae, and Sparasionidae) and one extinct family † Proterosceliopsidae, known from fossils found in

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

amber. Members of the group are known from the Early Cretaceous to present. The ancestral hosts of the group are

orthopterans Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grasshopp ...

, with various lineages switching hosts to other insects. Trissolcus on Chinavia eggs

References

External links

Bugguide.net. Superfamily Platygastroidea
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1942066 Apocrita superfamilies