- Stephanidae
Taxobox
name = Stephanidae
regnum =Animal ia
phylum =Arthropod a
classis =Insect a
ordo =Hymenoptera
subordo =Apocrita
superfamilia = Stephanoidea
familia = Stephanidae
subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies
subdivision =Foenatopinae Schlettererinae Stephaninae Stephanoidea is a small
Hymenoptera n superfamily that includes a single family, Stephanidae with 9 genera and almost 300 species, primarily tropical and subtropical in distribution. They all have a slender and oddly elongated body, highly modified hind legs, and a somewhat spherical head on a long "neck", bearing a set of about five "teeth" on the face surrounding the ocelli. They thus somewhat resembleGasteruptiidae , but they are glossy and often sculptured, and the swollen hind femora are unlike any gasteruptiid leg.There are reports that these wasps are
parasitoid s of xylophagousbeetle larva e, though the one species whose biology is well-known ("Schlettererius cinctipes ") is a parasitoid ofhorntail wasps.
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