Diapriids

This is a large family in which apparently only a small percentage of the existing species have been described. Most of those whose host associations are known are parasites of Diptera.

Members of the genera Coptera and Trichopria attack pupae inside host puparia. The species of Coptera that have been studied in detail are endoparasitoids of pupae, with oviposition through the host puparium.

Spilomicrus hemipterus has been collected from puparia of Anomoia purmunda infesting Crataegus, and from various Rhagoletis species infesting Lonicera, Prunus, and Berberis in Europe (Hoffmeister 1992).

Trichopria was recorded by Bodenheimer (1951) from pupae of Ceratitis capitata in Israel. Other records are discussed in Ovruski et al. (2000)

The Nearctic species of Coptera and Psilus were revised by Muesebeck (1980). Those species with host records can be found on the Coptera page.

Members of several genera have been reared from tephritid puparia. The genus Coptera Say (Figs. 1, 2) contains several species that have confirmed host records for Tephritidae (Silvestri 1914, Nixon 1930, Muesebeck 1980, Sivinski et al. 1998, Yoder and Wharton 2002). It is possible that several of the species of Coptera are specific to Tephritidae. Members of the genus Trichopria (Fig. 5) are often reared from puparia obtained from infested fruit, but the species of Trichopria attack a wide range of hosts, and at least some of these records are from families of Diptera other than Tephritidae. Care should be taken to confirm any rearings of Trichopria and Spilomicrus (Figs. 3,4) from tephritid hosts.

undetermined Diapriidae from Costa Rica

The Diapriidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. These tiny insects have an average length of 2–4 mm and never exceed 8 mm. They typically attack larvae and pupae of a wide range of insects, especially flies. The about 2,300 described species in around 200 described genera are divided into three subfamilies, and the group has a global distribution.

Diapriids show considerable diversity of form, with aptery (lack of wings) fairly common, sometimes in both sexes. Nearly all species exhibit noticeable sexual dimorphism, with males and females often mistaken for separate species. The wings, when present, show characteristically reduced venation, with the greatest reduction in the subfamilies Ambositrinae and Diapriinae.