Platygastroidea is a superfamily of parasitoid wasps with more than 4400 described species, but it is estimated that there may be a total of about 10 000 species worldwide.Masner L. (1993). Superfamily Platygastroidea. In Hymenoptera of the World: An Identification Guide to Families, ed. HGoulet, JT Huber, pp. 558–65. Ottawa: Agric. Can.Austin, A. D., Johnson, N. F., & Dowton, M. (2005). Systematics, evolution, and biology of scelionid and platygastrid wasps. Annu. Rev. Entomol., 50(1), 553-582. DOI
These are mostly very small (1-2.5 mm) wasps although some species are as small as 0.5 mm, with others being up to 12 mm long. Most are solitary endoparasites of insect and spider eggs. Their gross morphology (habitus) is diverse as it depends largely on the shape and size of the host egg - their bodies range from short and stocky to thin and elongated.
Systematics The superfamily 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. 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
The family Scelionidae was briefly considered to be a subfamily of the Platygastridae,Aguiar et al. 2013 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 amber. Members of the group are known from the Early Cretaceous to present. The ancestral hosts of the group are orthopterans, with various lineages switching hosts to other insects.
References
External links Bugguide.net. Superfamily Platygastroidea