Leucospidae Walker, 1834

Leucopsidae Walker, 1834: 13. Type genus: Leucopsis Duméril, 1823 (= Leucospis Fabricius, 1775).

Leucospidae Walker: Haliday 1839: ii; Habu 1962: 165; Bouček 1974a: 9; Schmid-Egger 2010.

Diagnosis.

Body usually black or brown, with yellow, orange, reddish brown or whitish markings; antenna 13-segmented, F1 petiolate, without anellus, and no multiporous plate sensillae; tegula elongate, at least two times as long as broad, reaching pronotum or nearly so; forewing often longitudinally folded at rest; hind femur markedly swollen with one or more teeth ventrally; hind tibia strongly curved; ovipositor generally exserted and curved upward over metasoma (Bouček 1974a; Hanson 1995; Noyes 2016).

Biology.

Ectoparasitoids of solitary aculeate Hymenoptera, especially Megachilidae and Anthophoridae (Burks 1961; Habu 1962; Bouček 1974a; Cooperband et al. 1999; Schmid-Egger 2010).

Distribution.

Cosmopolitan.

Valid species.

139 species in four genera (Alexandre et al. 2013; Noyes 2016).