Ibaliidae, Thomson, 1862

Buffington, Matthew L., Forshage, Mattias, Liljeblad, Johan, Tang, Chang-Ti & Noort, Simon van, 2020, World Cynipoidea (Hymenoptera): A Key to Higher- Level Groups, Insect Systematics and Diversity 4 (4), No. 1, pp. 1-69 : 34-35

Ibaliidae

Figs. 181–183

Ibaliids are generally a holarctic group with the highest species richness in North America ( Liu and Nordlander 1992). These are very distinct cynipoids, often brightly colored, and several times larger in body size than any other cynipoids (some liopterids are also large). Ronquist (1995a,b) hypothesized that this group, along with liopterids and Austrocynips , composing the ‘macrocynipoids’, represent the most pleisiomorphic forms of cynipoids, and further suggesting that the ground-plan biology for cynipoids is parasitizing wood boring insect larvae. This argument is supported by the fact that all members of macrocynipoid families possess horizontally strigate mesoscuta, putatively an adaptation to chewing out of woody substrates where their hosts dwell. Indeed, ibaliids are known to be koinobiont endoparasitoids of siricid woodwasps ( Hymenoptera : Siricidae )

( Hurley et al. 2020). Species of Ibalia are typically not very rare in the eastern Nearctic Region and parts of the Palearctic Region; species in the desert southwest of the United States are more rarely encountered. Species of Heteribalia are not common in the wild, but one species is regularly intercepted from wood products entering the United States from China ( Buffington , personal observation). Eileenella has not been collected since its description. Eileenella has been placed in its own monotypic subfamily Eileneellinae Kovalev, 1994 , which appears not to have been formally synonymized in the literature, even though its usefulness is obviously limited and has not been commonly cited.

Biology. Koinobiont endoparasitoids of Siricidae (Hymenoptera) .

Distribution. Holarctic and Oriental, one genus extends into Papua New Guinea; Introduced to Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa for biological control ( Hurley et al. 2020).

Relevant literature. Ronquist and Nordlander (1989) provided an exhaustive study of the morphology of Ibalia rufipes that remains the basis of all morphological studies among cynipoids; Liu and Nordlander 1994, revision; Nordlander et al. 1996, phylogeny; Ronquist 1999, review.

Classification.

Ibaliidae Thomson, 1862

Ibalia Latreille, 1802 ; 14 species NA, PA, OR, introduced AT, AU

Heteribalia Sakagami, 1949 ; 5 species OR, ePA

Eileenella Fergusson, 1992 ; 1 species Papua New Guinea