Overview
Many species are associated with plant tissue, either through
parasitising hosts hidden with plant tissue, or through phytophagy. Mega
stigminae are almost all phytophagous, feeding on seeds of mainly Pinaceae and Rosaceae, although a few species are known to parasitise gall-inducing
Cynipidae. To
rymines mostly attack gall-inducing insects, mainly Cecidomyiidae (gall flies) and Cynipidae, but also Tephritidae (Diptera) and Psyllidae (Hemiptera). Some torymines are phytophagous, or perhaps inqulines in galls. A few species are similar to some
eurytomids i
n that the larva will feed upon anything it finds inside the gall, including gall-inducing insects, inquilines, and plant tissue. Monodontomerinae attack the larvae of several holometabolous orders, including Diptera (flies), Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and Coleoptera (beetles), many of them being parasitoids of solitary wasps and
bees.
One group, the Podagrioni, are all parasitoids within the oothecae (egg cases) of Mantidae (preying mantids). A few species are phytophagous pests of plants.
Description
Torymids are characterised by the cerci situated on distinct peg-like structures; the occiput (back of the head) with a horseshoe-shaped carina; stigmal vein in fore wing either at a right angle to the wing margin and the stigma distinctly swollen (Megastigminae), or short and less than one-fifth the length of marginal vein (Toryminae, Monodontomerinae); and the ovipositor usually strongly exserted and curving upward.
Boucek (1988) recognised three subfamilies, but Grissell (1995) subsequently reduced the number to two: Torymidae and Megastigminae. Keys to Australasian genera are included in Boucek (1988). More recently, Grissell (1995) provided updated keys to world genera of Toryminae.
Distribution
The Torymidae are a fairly large group with more than 130 species decribed for Australia, and five for New Zealand.
Further information about the Torymidae can be found in Boucek 1988, Grissell 1995, Gibson 1993, Naumann 1991, Noyes & Valentine 1989 and Noyes 2001.