Family Gasteruptiidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera) as parasitoids of arthropods (Arthropoda: Insecta)

Abstract

The Gasteruptiidae are also hyperparasitic species. The “Parasitica” lay their eggs in other juvenile insects (eggs, larvae, or pupae) and the larvae hatch and develop feeding on the host. Many of these parasitoid wasps are used as biological control of agricultural pests. Larvae are predators/parasitoids and/or kleptoparasites. Their hosts are bees and wasps of the Colletidae, Megachilidae, Sphecidae, Apidae, Anthophoridae, and Vespidae families. When females oviposit their eggs on or nearby host larvae with the help of an ovipositor not present in males, they hatch into Gasteruption, Latreille, 1796, larvae which proceed to consume the host's larvae. The aim of this article was to describe the bionomy and classification of the family Gasteruptiidae (Insecta: Hymenoptera). Indexed articles, scientific book chapters, theses databases, university dissertations, national and international scientific articles, scientific journals, documents, and academic and scientific journals are available online ResearchGate, HAL SSRN, Scielo, and Qeios were used. The present work uses the reference of bibliographical research, understood as the act of inquiring and seeking information on a certain subject, through a survey carried out in national and foreign databases, with the objective of detecting what exists of consensus or controversy.