Brief Summary
provided by Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico
In many classifications the eupelmids are placed in the family Encyrtidae. However, all the eupelmids agree in possessing an array of characters that indicate that they and the encyrtids diverged separately from the evolutionary stem of the chalcidoids at a remote time in the development of the superfamily. Eupelmids may be recognized by having the margin of the prepectus projecting over the margin of the mesepisternum, in having the forecoxae and midcoxae widely separated, and in having the midcoxae so formed that they can be rotated either anteriorly or posteriorly. The encyrtids do not have those characters.
- bibliographic citation
- Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. 1979. Prepared cooperatively by specialists on the various groups of Hymenoptera under the direction of Karl V. Krombein and Paul D. Hurd, Jr., Smithsonian Institution, and David R. Smith and B. D. Burks, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Insect Identification and Beneficial Insect Introduction Institute. Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture.
