Rhopalosomatidae is a family of

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic. Females typic ...

containing about 68 extant species in four genera that are found worldwide. Three fossil genera are known. Rhopalosoma poeyi f

The adults resemble ants and may be confused with them. They are yellowish with red or brown markings, but may be all brown in colour. Winged species are usually nocturnal, while wingless or reduced-wing species are mainly diurnal. They are solitary, and the larvae are ectoparasitic on

orthoptera 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 – grassh ...

n nymphs. Adults have the tips of two or more antennal segments with spines. The hindwing (when present) has distinct claval and jugal lobes. The metatibia has a calcar or curved spur. ''Rhopalosoma'' is a New World genus (17 spp.) with most species from Central and South America. ''Olixon'' (26 spp.) is distributed through Africa and Australia and the New World. ''Paniscomima'' (11 spp.) is known from India, Madagascar, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Most species of ''Liosphex'' (14 spp.) are found from the southern US to Central and South America, with one species, ''L. trichopleurum'', known from the Philippines and Indonesia. ''Mesorhopalosoma cearae'' is a fossil known from Brazil.

Taxonomy

The family has four extant and two extinct genera: *†'' Cretolixon'' Lohrmann et al., 2020

Burmese amber Burmese amber, also known as Burmite or Kachin amber, is amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar. The amber is dated to around 100 million years ago, during the latest Albian to earliest Cenomanian ages of the mid-Cretaceous period. The ...

, Myanmar, mid-

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 ...

*†'' Eorhopalosoma'' Engel, 2008 Burmese amber, Myanmar,

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in ...

*'' Liosphex'' Townes, 1977 *'' Olixon'' Cameron, 1887 *'' Paniscomima'' Enderlein, 1904 *''

Rhopalosoma ''Rhopalosoma'' is a genus of wasps in family Rhopalosomatidae. Members of this family are parasitic of crickets Crickets are orthopteran insects which are related to bush crickets, and, more distantly, to grasshoppers. In older literatu ...

'' Cresson, 1865 The extinct genera †''

Mesorhopalosoma ''Mesorhopalosoma'' is an extinct genus 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 ...

'' Darling, 1990 and †'' Paleorhopalosoma'' Nel, Azar & Hervet, 2010 have been moved to the separate family

Angarosphecidae Angarosphecidae is an extinct family of Mesozoic and early Cenozoic wasps in the superfamily Apoidea. Genera * †'' Angarosphex'' Rasnitsyn 1975 Weald Clay, United Kingdom, Hauterivian/Barremian La Pedrera de Rúbies Formation, Spain, Barrem ...

References

External links

Rhopalosomatidae of the world

images

Apocrita families Taxa named by Charles Thomas Brues {{Vespoidea-stub