Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera) is extremely diverse with an estimated 500 000 species. We present the first phylogenetic analysis of the superfamily based on both morphological and molecular data. A web-based, systematics workbench mx was used to score 945 character states illustrated by 648 figures for 233 morphological characters for a total of 66 645 observations for 300 taxa. The matrix covers 22 chalcidoid families recognized herein and includes 268 genera within 78 of 83 subfamilies. Morphological data were analysed alone and in combination with molecular data from ribosomal 18S (2105 bp) and 28S D2-D5 expansion regions (1812 bp). Analyses were analysed alone and in combined datasets using implied-weights parsimony and likelihood. Proposed changes in higher classification resulting from the analyses include: (i) recognition of Eriaporidae, revised status; (ii) recognition of Cynipencyrtidae, revised status; (iii) recognition of Azotidae, revised status; (iv) inclusion of Sycophaginae in Agaonidae, revised status; (v) reclassification of Aphelinidae to include Aphelininae, Calesinae, Coccophaginae, Eretmocerinae and Eriaphytinae; (vi) inclusion of Cratominae and Panstenoninae within Pteromalinae (Pteromalidae), new synonymy; (vii) inclusion of Epichrysomallinae in Pteromalidae, revised status. At a higher level, Chalcidoidea was monophyletic, with Mymaridae the sister group of Rotoitidae plus the remaining Chalcidoidea. A eulophid lineage was recovered that included Aphelinidae, Azotidae, Eulophidae, Signiphoridae, Tetracampidae and Trichogrammatidae. Eucharitidae and Perilampidae were monophyletic if Eutrichosomatinae (Pteromalidae) was included, and Eupelmidae was monophyletic if Oodera (Pteromalidae: Cleonyminae) was included. Likelihood recovered a clade of Eupelmidae + (Tanaostigmatidae + (Cynipencyrtus + Encyrtidae). Support for other lineages and their impact on the classification of Chalcidoidea is discussed. Several life-history traits are mapped onto the new phylogeny.© The Willi Hennig Society 2013. Without question, Chalcidoidea is one of the most megadiverse groups of insects. Their morphological diversity is staggering (Fig. 1). They range in size from such veritable giants as females of Leptofoenus (Pteromalidae), which exceed 20 mm, to the minute and morphologically bizarre male of Dicopomorpha echmepterygis (Mymaridae), the smallest known specimen of which is 0.13 mm long. Males of D. echmepterygis have lost eyes, ocelli, mouthparts, antennal flagellum, wings, tarsi except for a highly modified arolium, and virtually any other feature that places them as parasitic wasps (Fig. 1a). Other bizarrities include male fig wasps, which can be reduced to turtle-like fighting machines that bear no resemblance to their corresponding females and are hardly recognizable as chalcidoids, or the grotesquely enlarged scutellum (Fig. 1h) of Galearia latreillei (Eucharitidae) and the dart-shaped ovipositor sheaths (Fig. 1j) of Cameronella (Pteromalidae). Convergent morphology is also rampant, and enlarged...

Abstract. One of the most recent classi®cations of Meloidae is based on the assumption that phoretic ®rst-instar larvae evolved twice in the family, once in Meloinae and again in Nemognathinae. Within Meloinae, this scheme places all presumed phoretic taxa in Meloini regardless of other characteristics. This paper challenges this classi®cation with a cladistic analysis of all meloid genera whose ®rst-instar larvae were available for study. It concludes that phoresy evolved several times in Meloinae alone and that Meloini, when de®ned to include all phoretic genera, is polyphyletic. Cladistic support also is presented for four subfamilies of Meloidae and for several of the traditional tribes recognized in recent classi®cations.

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