Platygastroidea | |
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Platygaster pupae inside gall | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Suborder: | Apocrita |
Superfamily: | Platygastroidea |
Families | |
The Hymenoptera superfamily Platygastroidea (sometimes incorrectly spelled Platygasteroidea) has, in the past, often been treated as a lineage within the superfamily Proctotrupoidea, but most classifications since 1977 have recognized it as an independent group, composed of two families, the Platygastridae and the Scelionidae, with a combined diversity of some 4000 described species. The two groups are unified by a number of features, the most important of which are shared unique features synapomorphies of the ovipositor and details of the female antenna. They are exclusively parasitic in nature. See families for details.
The former family Scelionidae is now considered to be a subfamily of the Platygastridae, along with the subfamilies Teleasinae and Telenominae.