Chrysidoidea

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Hymenopterida
Ordo: Hymenoptera
Subordo: Apocrita
Superfamilia: Chrysidoidea
Familiae (7 + 2†): Bethylidae - Chrysididae - Dryinidae - Embolemidae - Plumariidae - Sclerogibbidae - Scolebythidae
† Falsiformicidae – † Plumalexiidae

Name

Chrysidoidea Latreille, 1802
Synonyms

Bethyloidea Haliday, 1839

References

Brothers, D.J. 2011: A new Late Cretaceous family of Hymenoptera, and phylogeny of the Plumariidae and Chrysidoidea (Aculeata). ZooKeys 130: 515-542. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.130.1591 Open access.
Carpenter, J.M. 1999: What do we know about chrysidoid (Hymenoptera) relationships? Zoologica scripta, 28: 215–231.

Additional references

Muru, D., Madl, M., Jacquot, M., Deguine, J-P. 2017. A literature-based review of Hymenoptera Parasitica and Chrysidoidea from Reunion Island. ZooKeys 652: 55–128. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.652.10729. Reference page.

Vernacular names
беларуская: Блішчанкі
日本語: セイボウ上科

The superfamily Chrysidoidea is a very large cosmopolitan group (some 6,000 described species, and many more undescribed) , all of which are parasitoids or cleptoparasites of other insects. There are three large, common families (Bethylidae, Chrysididae, and Dryinidae) and four small, rare families (Embolemidae, Plumariidae, Sclerogibbidae, and Scolebythidae). Most species are small (7 mm or less), almost never exceeding 15 mm. This superfamily is traditionally considered to be the basal taxon within the Aculeata, and, as such, some species can sting, though the venom is harmless to humans.

Members of the families Dryinidae and Embolemidae are the only parasitoids among the Hymenoptera to have a life cycle in which the wasp larva begins its life inside the body of the host, and then later forms a sac (called a thylacium) that protrudes out of the host's abdomen. The closely related family Sclerogibbidae contains more traditional ectoparasitoids, attacking the nymphs of webspinners.

The extinct, monotypic family Plumalexiidae was described in 2011 from fossils preserved in Turonian age New Jersey amber.[1]
References

Brothers, Denis J. (2011). "A new Late Cretaceous family of Hymenoptera, and phylogeny of the Plumariidae and Chrysidoidea (Aculeata)" (PDF). ZooKeys (130): 515–542. doi:10.3897/zookeys.130.1591. PMC 3260779. PMID 22259297.