Chalcidoidea

Chalcid wasps are insects within the superfamily Chalcidoidea, part of the order Hymenoptera. The superfamily contains some 27,000 known species, and an estimated total diversity of more than 500,000 species, meaning the vast majority have yet to be discovered and described. The name "chalcid" is often confused with the name "chalcidid", though the latter refers strictly to one constituent family, the Chalcididae, rather than the superfamily as a whole; accordingly, most post 2010 publications use the name "chalcidoid" when referring to members of the superfamily.

Chalcidoidea

Hansson C, Shevtsova E (2012), modified by me · CC BY 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
Also called
chalcid waspPBDB
Sits inside
NeoproctaPBDB
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 272 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 49 of 272 occurrencesLate CretaceousPaleocene — about 0 of 272 occurrencesEocene — about 136 of 272 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 23 of 272 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 39 of 272 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 272 occurrencesPleistocene — about 3 of 272 occurrences128–124 Mya — about 4 occurrences124–120 Mya — about 7 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences111–107 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences107–103 Mya — about 2 occurrences103–98 Mya — about 4 occurrences98–94 Mya — about 6 occurrences94–90 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences90–86 Mya — about 1 occurrence86–81 Mya — about 19 occurrences81–77 Mya — about 8 occurrences77–73 Mya — about 8 occurrences73–68 Mya — about 2 occurrences68–64 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences60–56 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences56–51 Mya — about 9 occurrences51–47 Mya — about 11 occurrences47–43 Mya — about 9 occurrences43–38 Mya — about 3 occurrences38–34 Mya — about 94 occurrences34–30 Mya — about 11 occurrences30–26 Mya — about 9 occurrences26–21 Mya — about 16 occurrences21–17 Mya — about 20 occurrences17–13 Mya — about 12 occurrences13–8.6 Mya — about 2 occurrences8.6–4.3 Mya — about 1 occurrence4.3–0 Mya — about 11 occurrences121.4 Mya11.7 ka128 Mya0 Mya

272 occurrences of Chalcidoidea 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

272 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

19 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WRott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EKheta — 72.03°N, 101.33°EKheta — 71.31°N, 99.56°EKheta — 70.93°N, 98.64°EKishenehn — 48.39°N, 113.70°WForemost — 49.83°N, 111.70°WNaibuchi — 47.44°N, 142.76°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°WKap København — 82.47°N, 23.66°WKap København — 82.45°N, 24.10°WKap København — 82.32°N, 23.85°WGreen River — 41.56°N, 109.55°WNiveau du gypse d'Aix — 43.52°N, 5.45°EDolgan — 70.17°N, 86.82°EBattle — 49.24°N, 105.21°WBarstow — 34.94°N, 116.83°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EAntero — 39.11°N, 105.71°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EDunstan — 45.48°S, 169.31°ELa Toca — 19.22°N, 70.67°W

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The named rock units Chalcidoidea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 178 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chalcidoidea and its relatives

Eocene

Where Chalcidoidea and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

3,883 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 104 sites for Chalcidoidea, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. 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

107 references

Each of the 272 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. 95 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 Chalcidoidea

Credit
Hansson C, Shevtsova E (2012), modified by me
Licence
CC BY 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chalcidoidea was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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 itNeoprocta through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leach 1815