Chalcid wasp - unnamed 1

Chalcid wasps are small wasps often with attractive colours.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Torymus sp.
Family: 
Chalcid wasps
Family Latin name: 
Torymidae
Category: 
Insects other

Species description

Species description

Chalcid wasps are small wasps often with attractive colours. Females typically parasitise gall-forming insects.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

Chalcid wasps are a family of often small wasps belonging to the Chalcidoidea superfamily of parasitic wasps. This superfamily contains over 20,000 known species, but this total may swell to 500,000 species once all members have been discovered and described.

Category information

Insects evolved in the Ordovician from a crustacean ancestral lineage as terrestrial invertebrates with six legs (the Hexapoda). This was the time when terrestrial plants first appeared. In the Devonian some insects developed wings and flight, the first animals to do so. An early flying group was the Odonata from the Carboniferous, the damselflies and dragonflies, which have densely-veined wings and long, ten-segmented bodies. They are day-flying carnivores, with an aquatic larval stage, so are commonly seen flying near water. The carnivorous larvae are called nymphs. Odonata species are short-lived, damselflies surviving for 2-4 weeks, dragonflies for up to 2 months.

Some insect groups in the Cretaceous co-evolved with the flowering plants, and they have had a close association ever since. These groups are the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the Diptera (flies), and the Coleoptera (beetles). The diversity of beetles is astonishing. Of all the known animal species on the planet, one in five is a beetle!