Ovarian egg morphology in chalcidoid wasps (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) parasitizing gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae)

Laburpena

We provide morphological egg data of 26 species of 5 chalcidoid families associated with cynipid galls(Hymenoptera: Cynipidae) from western Palaearctic, including the first egg data for the family Ormyridae. Adultchalcidoid species were reared from galls, and eggs obtained from dissected female ovaries were examinedusing scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The shape of the eggs varies from oval to elongate and taperedat both ends. Eggs of Eurytomidae as well as some Eulophidae, Eupelmidae and Pteromalidae are equippedwith a peduncle at the anterior end. We found a positive correlation between long eggs and long ovipositorsand confirmed the expectation that eggs of endoparasitoids are generally shorter and narrower than eggs ofectoparasitoids. We were able to locate the sperm entrance or micropyle at the anterior pole of eggs of severalspecies. It is situated at the anterior end of the egg and at the end of the peduncle when present. In addition,the eggshells of the endoparasitoid Sycophila biguttata (Swederus, 1795) (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae) andthe ectoparasitoid Cecidostiba fungosa (Geoffroy, 1785) (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), are for the first timedescribed.