Pteromalidaeとは 意味・読み方・使い方

Pteromalidae is a very large family of parasitic wasps, with some 3,450 described species in some 640 genera (the number used to be greater, but many species and genera have been reduced to synonymy in recent years). The subfamily-level divisions of the family are highly contentious and unstable, and there is no question that the family is completely artificial, composed of numerous distantly-related groups (polyphyletic). Accordingly, details of the life history range over nearly the entire range possible within the Chalcidoidea, though the majority are (as with most Chalcidoids) parasitoids of other insects. They are found throughout the world in virtually all habitats, and many are important as biological control agents.