Overview
The group is most diverse in low vegetation and leaf-litter, particularly in moist habitats where they parasitise a wide variety of dipteran (fly) larvae. Species have also been recorded from Isoptera (termite) nests. Elsewhere in the world, host records also include Coleoptera (beetles), Formicidae and Hemiptera (leafhoppers, etc.), the latter group as hyperparasitoids. Diapriids are often collected in very large numbers in yellow pan, Malaise and soil/ leaf litter emergence traps.
Description
Diapriidae are the largest family within the Proctotrupoidea. They vary in size from less than 1 mm to about 7 mm in length and are readily identified by the shelf on the face into which the antennae are inserted, their sub-spherical head, reduced wing venation, smooth polished body, and petiolate anterior metasoma. Wing reduction is common in some litter-associated species, while others occurring in this habitat show specialised adaptations such as elytriform ('beetle-like', rounded) wings.
Distribution
The Australian fauna is highly endemic and probably consists of more than 500 species. Naumann (1982, 1988) revised the Gondwanan subfamily Ambositrinae for Australasia, but the two larger subfamilies, Belytinae and Diapriinae, are mostly undescribed.
Further information on the Diapriidae can be found in Masner 1993, Naumann 1982, Naumann 1987, Naumann 1988 and Naumann 1991.