Introduction

This paper is part of a series of new checklists to the British and Irish Hymenoptera fauna, that started with Broad and Livermore (2014b), Broad and Livermore (2014a) and Liston et al. (2014)and is the first update to the Hymenoptera checklist since 1978 (Fitton et al. 1978). Proctotrupoids are koinobiont endoparasitoids of holometabolous insect larvae. Although Proctrotrupidae can be common and readily collected by sweep netting or Malaise traps, the superfamily is poorly known biologically. Proctotrupidae are parasitoids of Coleoptera and, to a lesser extent, Diptera larvae, with one extraordinary host record from a centipede, whereas Heloridae have been reared from Neuroptera larvae (biology summarised in Gauld and Bolton 1988). Extralimital families attack Coleoptera and Neuroptera, or (Austroniidae, Peradeniidae, Proctorenyxidae) are completely unknown biologically.

The superfamily 'Proctotrupoidea' has generally been a welcoming home to a variety of parasitoid groups and recognised as not being monophyletic (Rasnitsyn 1988, Ronquist et al. 1999, Dowton and Austin 2001); in the 1978 checklist (Fitton et al. 1978) the Platygastroidea and Diaprioidea were included in the Proctotrupoidea. The removal of the Diapriidae, Maamingidae and Monomachidae to their own superfamily (Diaprioidea) has recently gained acceptance (e.g. Klopfstein et al. 2013). The Proctotrupoidea as presently defined (e.g. Sharkey 2007) now comprises the Heloridae and Proctotrupidae in Britain and the extralimital families Austroniidae, Pelecinidae, Peradeniidae, Proctorenyxidae, Roproniidae and Vanhorniidae.

There has been very little work on the British proctotrupoid fauna and most of what we know about the British and Irish Proctotrupidae derives from the global monograph of Townes and Townes (1981). Both families can be recognised instantly by their distinctive wing venation and they each have a characteristic habitus (Figs 1, 2, 3). A revision of the British fauna would undoubtedly reveal more species.

Figure 1.  

Representative British Heloridae. Helorus ruficornis Förster, female, England, Herts., Aldbury, 2013, coll. G.R. Broad.

Figure 2.  

Representative British Proctotrupidae. Disogmus basalis (Thomson), male, England, Herefordshire, Mary Knoll Valley, 21-24.5.2007, coll. D.G. Notton, NHMUK010209578.

Figure 3.  

Representative British Proctotrupidae. Proctotrupes brachypterus (Schrank), female, England, Rothamsted, 26.9.1973, NHMUK010209579.

Materials and methods

Analysis

Acknowledgements

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