A Molecular Phylogeny of the Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera)

Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) are extremely diverse with more than 23,000 species described and over 500,000 species estimated to exist. This is the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the superfamily based on a molecular analysis of 18S and 28S ribosomal gene regions for 19 families, 72 subfamilies, 343 genera and 649 species. The 56 outgroups are comprised of Ceraphronoidea and most proctotrupomorph families, including Mymarommatidae. Data alignment and the impact of ambiguous regions are explored using a secondary structure analysis and automated (MAFFT) alignments of the core and pairing regions and regions of ambiguous alignment. Both likelihood and parsimony approaches are used to analyze the data. Overall there is no impact of alignment method, and few but substantial differences between likelihood and parsimony approaches. Monophyly of Chalcidoidea and a sister group relationship between Mymaridae and the remaining Chalcidoidea is strongly supported in all analyses. Either Mymarommatoidea or Diaprioidea are the sister group of Chalcidoidea depending on the analysis. Likelihood analyses place Rotoitidae as the sister group of the remaining Chalcidoidea after Mymaridae, whereas parsimony nests them within Chalcidoidea. Some traditional family groups are supported as monophyletic (Agaonidae, Eucharitidae, Encyrtidae, Eulophidae, Leucospidae, Mymaridae, Ormyridae, Signiphoridae, Tanaostigmatidae and Trichogrammatidae). Several other families are paraphyletic (Perilampidae) or polyphyletic (Aphelinidae, Chalcididae, Eupelmidae, Eurytomidae, Pteromalidae, Tetracampidae and Torymidae). Evolutionary scenarios discussed for Chalcidoidea include the evolution of phytophagy, egg parasitism, sternorrhynchan parasitism, hypermetamorphic development and heteronomy

Fauna Europaea: Hymenoptera - Apocrita (excl. Ichneumonoidea)

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies. This represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education. Hymenoptera is one of the four largest orders of insects, with about 130,000 described species. In the Fauna Europaea database, ‘Hymenoptera - Apocrita (excluding Ichneumonoidea)’ comprises 13 superfamilies, 52 families, 91 subfamilies, 38 tribes and 13,211 species. The paper includes a complete list of taxa dealt with, the number of species in each and the name of the specialist responsible for data acquisition. As a general conclusion about the European fauna of Hymenoptera, the best known countries in terms of recorded species are those from northwestern Europe, with the least known fauna probably in the more eastern and southeastern parts of Europe

A phylogenetic analysis of the megadiverse Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera).

International audiencechalcidoidea (hymenoptera) is extremely diverse with an estimated 500 000 species. we present the first phylogenetic analysis of the superfamily based on both morphological and molecular data. a web-based, systematics workbench mx was used to score 945 character states illustrated by 648 figures for 233 morphological characters for a total of 66 645 observations for 300 taxa. the matrix covers 22 chalcidoid families recognized herein and includes 268 genera within 78 of 83 subfamilies. morphological data were analysed alone and in combination with molecular data from ribosomal 18s (2105 bp) and 28s d2 – d5 expansion regions (1812 bp). analyses were analysed alone and in combined datasets using implied-weights parsimony and likelihood. proposed changes in higher classification resulting from the analyses include: (i) recognition of eriaporidae, revised status ; (ii) recognition of cynipencyrtidae, revised status ; (iii) recognition of azotidae, revised status ; (iv) inclusion of sycophaginae in agaonidae, revised sta- tus ; (v) reclassification of aphelinidae to include aphelininae, calesinae, coccophaginae, eretmocerinae and eriaphytinae; (vi) inclusion of cratominae and panstenoninae within pteromalinae (pteromalidae), new synonymy ; (vii) inclusion of epichrysomalli- nae in pteromalidae, revised status . at a higher level, chalcidoidea was monophyletic, with mymaridae the sister group of rotoiti- dae plus the remaining chalcidoidea. a eulophid lineage was recovered that included aphelinidae, azotidae, eulophidae, signiphoridae, tetracampidae and trichogrammatidae. eucharitidae and perilampidae were monophyletic if eutrichosomatinae (pteromalidae) was included, and eupelmidae was monophyletic if oodera (pteromalidae: cleonyminae) was included. likelihood recovered a clade of eupelmidae + (tanaostigmatidae + ( cynipencyrtus + encyrtidae). support for other lineages and their impact on the classification of chalcidoidea is discussed. several life-history traits are mapped onto the new phylogen