Signiphoridae (historically also known as Thysanidae) is a small family of in the superfamily Chalcidoidea. The roughly 80 species are placed in four genera.
Diagnosis
The Signiphoridae range in size from . They are usually black, brown, or yellowish, occasionally with
salmon pink or white details, but never metallic. Cuticle sculpturing is very light when compared to families such as the
Eurytomidae or
Chalcididae.
The main diagnostic characteristics are:
-
The metasoma is sessile (no "wasp waist"); the propodeum has a medium triangular zone.
-
The antennal club is long, unsegmented, and preceded by one to four ring-like segments ("annelli").
-
The wings have medium to long marginal setae, short postmarginal and stigmal veins, and no, one or two setae on the membrane.
Habitat
Chartocerus and
Thysanus have cosmopolitan distributions. The only formal record for
Clytina is from Eastern Europe.
Signiphora, which represents more than half of the known species, is primarily
Neotropical.
Biology
Most species have been reared in association with
,
,
,
and flies (
chamaemyiidae, gall-making
chloropidae, and
Drosophilidae predators of scale insects.
[Woolley, J. B. & Hanson, P. E. (2006). Familia Signiphoridae. In: Hanson, P. E. & Gauld, I. D. (Eds.) Hymenoptera de la Región Neotropical. Memoirs of the American Entomological Institute 77:422-425.] They can be either
or hyperparasitoids. While parasitoids contribute to control populations of other insects, hyperparasitoids can disrupt systems under biological control.
Systematics and classification
Woolley (1988)
made several changes in the classification at genus and species level after a
phylogenetic analysis of the family. The available generic names in this group are
Signiphora Ashmead,
Thysanus Walker,
Chartocerus Motschulsky,
Clytina Erdös,
Neosigniphora Rust,
Kerrichiella Rozanov,
Rozanoviella Subba Rao,
Xana Kurdjumov,
Matritia Mercet,
Signiphorina Nikol'skaya and
Neocales Risbec. The four last names are under synonymy or considered as subgenera in
Chartocerus.
Rozanoviella and
Kerrichiella are synonymized under
Signiphora.
Neosigniphora is synonymized under
Thysanus. Hence, currently only four genera are valid. Subfamilies are not recognized.
Signiphoridae are believed to be most closely related to azotine aphelinidae.
External links
