Acaenitinae | |
---|---|
Coleocentrus excitator | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Hymenoptera |
Family: | Ichneumonidae |
Subfamily: | Acaenitinae Förster, 1869 |
Acaenitinae is a subfamily of the parasitoid wasp family Ichneumonidae. Female Acaenitinae have a large triangular projecting genital plate.[1]
It is distributed on all continents except Antarctica, although only one specimen (from the genus Arotes has ever been discovered in South America.[2]
Little is known of the biology of Acaenitinae. The only reared species was a koinobiont endoparasitoid of a weevil. Hosts are believed to be Coleoptera larvae in wood.[citation needed]
The subfamily has traditionally been divided into two tribes (Acaenitini and Coleocentrini) and comprises 28 genera.[3][4] The validity of tribes remains debated. Wahl and Gauld considered Coleocentrini paraphyletic and favored abandoning a tribal arrangement in 1998.[2] In contrast, Klopfstein et al. and Bennett et al. found Acaenitini to be monophyletic in 2019. However, they also found that Coleocentrus, the type genus of Coleocentrini, was not recovered as sister to Acaenitini.[1]