Family MYRMECOLACIDAE
Compiler and date details
T.R. New, Department of Zoology, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia
Introduction
Members of the family Myrmecolacidae are highly unusual in that the two sexes parasitise different hosts: males parasitise ants and females have been reared from Orthoptera and Mantodea. Male tarsi are 4-segmented, and antennae have seven segments with only segment 3 flabellate. The female brood canal opens ventrally and the opening is wide, the head is less than half as long as the cephalothorax, and the cephalothorax has hooked projections.
Ten described species are known from Australia, but probably about 20 species occur here (Kathirithamby 1993).
References
Kathirithamby, J. 1993. Myrmecolacidae (Strepsiptera) from Australia. Invertebrate Taxonomy 7: 859–873