Overview
Sclerogibbids are solitary or gregarious
ectoparasitoids
of Embioptera (webspinners). The larvae stay attached to the metasomal intersegmental membranes of nymphal webspinners and then pupate in the silk tunnels of their host. So far, the biology of no Australian species has been documented.
Description
Females are apterous (wingless) while males are fully winged. They vary in length from 2 6 mm, and can be recognised by the antennae inserted just below a protruding shelf on the face; the antennae 20+ segmented; the head triangular in lateral view, and the fore femur greatly swollen.
In addition, females have an hourglass-shaped mesosoma, while the fore wing of males lacks a pterostigma and distal venation, and the hind wing has no closed cells but a large basal lobe.
Distribution
This small, very rarely collected family is known from a single genus,
Probethylus
, and only six species from Australia, while it is apparently absent from New Zealand.
Further information about the Sclerogibbidae can be found in Finnamore & Brothers 1993 and Gauld & Hanson 1995.