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Family ELENCHIDAE


Compiler and date details

T.R. New, Department of Zoology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia

Introduction

Elenchidae are a cosmopolitan family, distinguished by males having 2-segmented tarsi and 4–6-segmented antennae, and the females having the brood canal opening ventrally, its opening wide, the head less than half as long as the membranous cephalothorax and the cephalothorax without any hook-like projections.

The two genera that occur in Australia are parasites of Homoptera (Kathirithamby 1989). They are represented in the Australian fauna by four species.

 

References

Kathirithamby, J. 1989. Descriptions and biological notes on the Australian Elenchidae (Strepsiptera). Invertebrate Taxonomy 3: 175–195