Recent advances in Eupelmidae(Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) systematics

The cosmopolitan species of eupelmids are very important parasitoids.Some of them have been used in biological control for agricultural and forestry pests and very successful results been obtained.The species of eupelmids in classical taxonomic study have long been treated as a family category under the superfamily Chalcidoidea;about 974 species have been described and divided in 48 genera 3 subfamilies at present.Currently,as more and more studies on taxonomy and phylogeny in Eupelmidae,its monophyletic relationships have been suspected.In this paper,studies on the characters,taxonomic history and phylogeny of Eupelmidae are reviewed;some problems in the taxonomy and phylogeny of Eupelmidae are discussed.Meantime,the outlook on the use of molecular biological techniques for the further taxonomy and phylogeny of Eupelmidae is proposed.