LIBRARY

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COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
Family EVANIIDlE (Leach 1812) Westwood 1840 (Evan"i'i"dre, from the
Latin evanidus, frail, feeble; because of their slow movements). Ensign
Flies.
Short, robust, somber insects frorn 4-17 mm. in length, which carry the
abdomen raised into the air like an ensign from which habit the common name
is derived. Antennae 13" to 14"segmented. Wings with primitive venation,
i.e., many cells and broad veins; fore wings with distinct costal cell; with or
without one discoidal cell; and radial cell short and broad or absent. Abdomen
with long slender pedicel attached high on the upper part of the median dorsal
plate above the hind coxre; gaster small. The larvre are parasitic and have been
reared from eggs of cockroaches and mantids and from the larvre of xiphydrid
horntails. The family consists of about 200 species widely distributed and espe"
cially well represented in Australia. The important genera are Brachygaster
Leach, Evania Fab., Hyptia I11iger, Hyptz"ogaster Kieffer, Semceodogaster Bradley.
The members of the related families GASTERUPTIONID.tE (Ashmead
1900) Handlirsch 1925, parasitic on the larvre of bees and wasps, and AULACI­
DJE Schuckard 1841, parasitic on the larvre of cerambycid beetles, have the
abdomen similarly attached to the propodeum.
Family ICHNEUMONIDJE Leach 1817 (Ich'neu-mon'i-dre, from the Greek
lxv€up.(!)JI, a small wasp that hunts spiders; described by Aristotle and
Pliny; literally a tracker). German, Schlupfwespen. French, Ichneumonides.
Ichneumonids, Ichneumon Flies.
Minute to large slender parasitic wasps with long, many"segmented, filiform
antennre; three ocelli; well-developed mouth parts; long slender legs with di"
vided trochanters; conspicuous tibial spurs, strong claws, and with an empodium.
Wings usually large; rarely absent or brachypterous in both sexes; welldefined
venation; costal cells of fore wings eliminated by coalescence of costal
and subcostal veins in most forms; median or costal cell separated from discoidal
by the veinlet m-cu. Propodeum enlarged and prolonged behind the
posterior coxre; often sculptured. Abdomen long and slender; cylindrical or
compressed laterally; attached to lower part of propodeum; two or three times
as long as the head and thorax; ovipositor variable in length up to six times the
length of the body. Eggs either deposited on the outside or inserted within the
body of the host; sometimes with a stalk or tube.
Larvre, especially the endoparasitic forms, undergo a complex metamorphosis
with four or five different stages. First stage often with long respiratory prolongation
or tail which is reabsorbed; spiracular respiration appears along with
the large head in the third stage. The fully developed body is 13-segmented.
The larvre are attached to the exterior walls (ectoparasitic) or may hatch within
or bore into the body where they live in the body cavity of the host (endopara"
sitic). The larvre may enter either the larval or pupal stages of the host, and the
adult ichneumonids usually emerge from the chrysalis or pupa of the host. The
most important hosts consist chiefly of the larvre and pupre .of LEPIDOPTERA,
Hy}4ENOPTERA, COLEOPTERA, and DIPTERA in the order named.