Scelioninae

Scelioninae is a subfamily of wasps in the family Scelionidae. It is a very large cosmopolitan group of exclusively parasitoid wasps, mostly small (0.5–10 mm), often black, often highly sculptured, usually with geniculate (elbowed) antennae that have a 9- or 10-segmented flagellum. It was formerly classified as a subfamily of the Platygastridae, but in 2021 the family Scelionidae was revived, containing the subfamilies Scelioninae, Teleasinae, and Telenominae.

Scelioninae

H. Dumas · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PlatygastroideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 121 million years on record.

The record covers at least 121.4 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 125.77 Mya to 0 Mya.

Early Cretaceous — about 14 of 96 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 7 of 96 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 96 occurrencesEocene — about 43 of 96 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 96 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 24 of 96 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 96 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 96 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 2 occurrences120–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences111–107 Mya — about 1 occurrence107–103 Mya — about 6 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 5 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 2 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences86–81 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 1 occurrence77–73 Mya — about 1 occurrence73–68 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences64–60 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 3 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 3 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 1 occurrence43–38 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 31 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 3 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 2 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 12 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 11 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences4.3–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

96 occurrences of Scelioninae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

96 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

11 formations

Escucha — 42.64°N, 2.72°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°WHotont — 47.37°N, 102.39°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WPebas — 4.00°S, 73.15°WDunstan — 45.48°S, 169.31°EKabaw — 21.68°N, 94.08°EHollín — 0.71°S, 77.79°W

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The named rock units Scelioninae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 73 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scelioninae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Scelioninae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,499 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Scelioninae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

34 references

Each of the 96 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 22 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Scelioninae

Credit
H. Dumas
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Scelioninae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPlatygastroidea through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Thomson 1858