Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Evanioidea

Distribution data for the Evanioidea are taken from Crosskey (1951), with additional references given under notes for each taxon. This is a small superfamily of three extant families, but particularly poorly represented in northern Europe. The Evaniidae (sometimes referred to as 'ensign wasps') are, where known, parasitoids/predators of cockroach oothecae (Crosskey 1951; Brown 1973) and are morphologically very distinct from the remaining families. Whilst rather similar in appearance, the Aulacidae and Gasteruptiidae (Fig. 1) differ markedly in biology, with the single British aulacid, Aulacus striatus (Jurine), being a koinobiont endoparasitoid of Xiphydriidae larvae (see E.R. Skinner & W.G. Thompson's 1960 film, 'The Alder Woodwasp and its Insect Enemies', distributed by World Educational Films: http://worldeducationalfilms.com/the-alder-woodwasp-and-its-insectenemies/) whilst Gasteruption species are essentially predators and cleptoparasites of solitary bee larvae (Malyshev 1964). † †