Ichneumonidae

Ichneumon wasps
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous – Recent[1]
Diphyus sp., Rhône (France)
Anomaloninae, (Tanzania)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Ichneumonoidea
Family: Ichneumonidae
Latreille, 1802
Subfamilies

See below

The Ichneumonidae, also known as ichneumon wasps, ichneumonid wasps, ichneumonids, or Darwin wasps, are a family of parasitoid wasps of the insect order Hymenoptera. They are one of the most diverse groups within the Hymenoptera with roughly 25,000 species described as of 2016.[2] However, this likely represents less than a quarter of their true richness as reliable estimates are lacking, along with much of the most basic knowledge about their ecology, distribution, and evolution.[1] It is estimated that there are more species in this family than there are species of birds and mammals combined.[3] Ichneumonid wasps, with very few exceptions, attack the immature stages of holometabolous insects and spiders, eventually killing their hosts.[4] They thus fulfill an important role as regulators of insect populations, both in natural and semi-natural systems, making them promising agents for biological control.[5]

Yellow and black flying insect lacking an ovipositor... male Ichneumonid Wasp
Male ichneumonid wasp

The distribution of the ichneumonids was traditionally considered an exception to the common latitudinal gradient in species diversity, since the family was thought to be at its most species-rich in the temperate zone instead of the tropics, but numerous new tropical species have now been discovered.

  1. ^ a b Quicke, D. L. J. (2015). The braconid and ichneumonid parasitoid wasps: biology, systematics, evolution and ecology. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
  2. ^ Yu, D. S.; van Achterberg, C.; Horstmann, K. (2016). Taxapad 2016. Ichneumonoidea 2015 (Biological and taxonomical information), Taxapad Interactive Catalogue Database on flash-drive. Nepean, Ottawa, Canada.
  3. ^ J. LaSalle; Ian David Gauld (1993). "Hymenoptera: Their Diversity, and Their Impact on the Diversity of Other Organisms". Hymenoptera and biodiversity. Wallingford, Oxon, UK: C.A.B. International. p. 1. ISBN 9780851988306. OCLC 28576921.
  4. ^ Broad, G. R.; Shaw, M. R.; Fitton, M. G. (2018). "Ichneumonid wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae): their classification and biology". Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects, 7(12): 1-418.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference KlopfsteinEtAl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).