Eulophidae (Haliday, 1833)

Shimbori, Eduardo Mitio, Costa, Valmir Antonio & Zucchi, Roberto Antonio, 2020, Annotated checklist and illustrated key to parasitoids (Hymenoptera: Diapriidae Eulophidae and Pteromalidae) of fruit flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) in Brazil, Zootaxa 4858 (1), pp. 53-70 : 60

Family Eulophidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea)

This is possibly the most diverse and common family of Chalcidoidea , with more than 4,000 species in 280 genera worldwide. In the Neotropics there are 500 species in 120 genera, but estimates are that Costa Rica alone has more than 2,000 species ( LaSalle et al. 2006). The monophyly of the group is virtually undisputed ( Heraty et al. 2013) and its position within Chalcidoidea seems to be basal, derived just after the two most basal egg-parasitoid families Mymaridae and Trichogrammatidae . Therefore, the ancestral Eulophidae would have been the first chalcidoids to attack hosts in stages other than eggs and to possess metallic coloration ( Peters et al. 2018).

The eulophids are extremely diverse in their natural histories, parasitism strategies and host associations. They attack hosts in many orders of insects and in any development stage from egg to adult, although the majority of the hosts are larvae of holometabolous insects. Exceptions include spiders and hemimetabolous insects (e.g., Odonata, Orthoptera and Hemiptera), in these cases usually parasitizing eggs ( LaSalle et al. 2006).

Tetrastichus giffardianus , a native of Africa, is the only species of Eulophidae that has been recorded in Brazil as parasitizing tephritids. It was introduced into Brazil in 1937 ( Autuori 1938) for biological control of Ce. capitata . After its introduction, the species was believed to have failed to establish until it was rediscovered 60 years after the last report ( Costa et al. 2005). Only one other eulophid parasitizes fruit-infesting tephritid flies in the New World, Aceratoneuromyia indica (Silvestri) , which is also exotic, introduced from Southeast Asia, and has established successfully in several countries in the Americas ( Ovruski et al. 2000).