Stephanidae

Encyclopedia : S : ST : STE : Stephanidae

Stephanoidea is a small Hymenopteran 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 resemble Gasteruptiidae, but they are glossy and often sculptured, and the swollen hind femora are unlike any gasteruptiid leg.

There are reports that these wasps are parasitoids of xylophagous beetle larvae, though the one species whose biology is well-known (Schlettererius cinctipes) is a parasitoid of horntail wasps.

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