The Tanaostigmatidae are a small family of parasitic wasps in the superfamily

Chalcidoidea Chalcid wasps (, , for their metallic colour) are insects within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, part of the order Hymenoptera. The superfamily contains some 22,500 known species, and an estimated total diversity of more than 500,000 species, me ...

. They are almost exclusively phytophagous insects, forming

gall Galls (from the Latin , 'oak-apple') or ''cecidia'' (from the Greek , anything gushing out) are a kind of swelling growth on the external tissues of plants, fungi, or animals. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues, similar to be ...

s in plant stems, leaves, or seeds. The some 90 species in 9 genera are primarily tropical and subtropical. They are typically short, squat wasps, best recognized by a protruding prepectus, and the mesonotum is often strongly arched, so the pronotum is nearly vertical.

External links

Universal Chalcidoidea Database
Chalcidoidea Apocrita families {{Chalcidoidea-stub