Overview
In Australia, species are probably all
endoparasitic on beetle larvae, although some northern hemisphere taxa are reported to parasitise fungus gnats (Diptera: Mycetophilidae). The family is most common in eastern Australia and occasionally specimens are collected in
Malaise or yellow pan traps in seasonally or permanent moist habitats.
Townes and Townes (1981) revised the world fauna using the family name Serphidae.
Description
They vary in size from 3 15 mm, have reduced venation with a subtriangular pterostigma, and a smooth black body. Most species have a narrow and down-curved posterior metasoma, and a tiny slit-like radial cell at the edge of the pterostigma. The genus
Austroserphus
, which is endemic to Australia, is placed in its own subfamily and is thought to be the most primitive extant proctotrupid genus worldwide.
Distribution
This is a moderately small family of some 30 described species in Australia and around 10 species for New Zealand. However, this is probably less than a quarter of the true size of the fauna.
Further information about the Proctotrupidae can be found in Masner 1993, Naumann 1991 and Townes & Townes 1981.