Family TORYMIDAE
Introduction
The Torymidae is a fairly large group, and can be commonly collected. Many species are associated with plant tissue, either through attacking hosts hidden with plant tissue, or through phytophagy. Megastigminae are almost all phytophagous, feeding on seeds of mainly Pinaceae and Rosaceae, although a few species are known to parasitise gall-forming Cynipidae. Torymines mostly attack gall-forming insects, mainly Cecidomyiidae and Cynipidae, but also Tephritidae and Psyllidae. Some torymines are phytophagous, or perhaps inqulines in galls. A few species are similar to some eurytomids in displaying entomophytophagy; the larva will feed upon anything it finds inside the gall, including gall-forming insects, inquilines, and plant tissue. Monodontomerines attack the larvae of several holometabolous orders, including Diptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, many of them being parasitoids of solitary wasps and bees. One group, the Podagrioni, are all parasitoids within egg cases of Mantidae.
Economic Importance. A few species are phytophagous pests of plants.
Distribution. Cosmopolitan.
Classification. Boucek (1988) recognised three subfamilies in the Torymidae; Grissell (1995) has since reduced the number to two: Torymidae and Megastigminae.
Important genera: Torymus, Megastigmus, Podagrion.
Identification of Australian genera: Keys to Australasian genera are included in Boucek (1988). Grissell (1995) has since provided updated keys to world genera of Toryminae.
Diagnosis
Cerci placed on distinct peg-like structures. Occiput with a horseshoe-shaped carina. Stigmal vein in fore wing either at right angle to wing margin with stigma distinctly swollen (Megastigminae), or short and less than 1/5th the length of marginal vein (Toryminae, Monodontomerinae). Ovipositor in female usually strongly exserted and curving upward; only rarely not exserted, and in these cases the hind coxa is distinctly larger than fore or middle coxa (as is generally the case for this family).
General References
Boucek, Z. 1988. Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera). A biosystematic revision of genera of fourteen families, with a reclassification of species. London : CAB International 832 pp.
Grissell, E.E. 1995. Toryminae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Torymidae): a redefinition, generic classification, and annotated world catalog of species. Memoirs on Entomology, International 2: 1-470