Perilampidae

Taxobox
name = Perilampidae
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hymenoptera
subordo = Apocrita
superfamilia = Chalcidoidea
familia = Perilampidae
familia_authority = Latreille, 1809
diversity = 3 subfamilies
15 genera
c. 270 species
diversity_link = biodiversity
subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies
subdivision =
Chrysolampinae
Perilampinae
Philomidinae

The Perilampidae are a small family within the Chalcidoidea, composed mostly of hyperparasitoids. The family is closely related to the Eucharitidae, and the eucharitids appear to have evolved from within the Perilampidae, thus rendering the family paraphyletic (if the two families are joined in the future, the name that has precedence is Eucharitidae). As presently defined, there are 15 genera and >270 species worldwide. They are often brilliantly metallic (especially blue or green), with a robust mesosoma and a small, triangular metasoma (swollen and bulbous in Philomidinae). They are generally very strongly sculptured. The prothorax is typically very broad and disclike, and the labrum is multidigitate, a feature shared with the Eucharitidae.

Another feature shared by Eucharitidae and Perilampidae is that the first-instar larvae are called "planidia" and are responsible for gaining access to the host, rather than the egg-laying female. Those species which are hyperparasitoids will burrow into a secondary host's body and seek out endoparasitoid larvae such as tachinid flies or ichneumonoid wasps, and attack these.

External links

* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/chalcidoids/perilampidae.html Universal Chalcidoidea Database]