Westwood's illustration of his "Stephanus Brasili-
ensis" (=Megischus furcatus Lep. & Serv.). Male.
Since the family was erected many ideas have been proposed to explain its relationships with other Hymenoptera. Eventually, almost all of them were discarded as more detailed studies appeared in the literature, leaving the correct placement of the family among the Hymenoptera as a problem that is still in need of a solution. Many past and contemporary authors insisted in the idea that the Stephanidae would be part of the Ichneumonoidea (e.g., Townes, 1969; Carlson, 1979; DeSantis, 1980), especially in function of the strong overal similarity with some species of Braconidae and Ichneumonidae. Sharkey & Wahl (1992), however, have demonstrated that the Stephanidae share only one of the autapomorphies of the Ichneumonoidea (loss of 2r-m on the front wing), which also occurs, by convergence, in all major groups of Apoidea, showing that there is no evidence to suport Stephanidae as part of Ichneumonoidea. Alternatively, some authors included Stephanidae in the Megalyroidea (with Megalyridae), on the basis of similarities on head and hind-leg structure (Riek in CSIRO, 1973; Gillott, 1980). This last idea is not new, and was first considered by Ashmead (1900), but is still waiting for a more persuasive proof. Currently, the major tendency is to classify the Stephanidae in an isolated superfamily, the Stephanoidea (e.g., Gauld & Bolton, 1988; Naumann, 1992; Goulet & Huber, 1993).
Stephanidae subfamilies were originally proposed by Enderlein (1905), and adopted by Orfila (1949, 1956), who respectively erects a new subfamily to place the genus Schlettererius, and provides a key to the recognition of the subfamilies. Although each subfamily shows a considerably homogeneous group of genera, this taxonomc level has been ignored in most works about Stephanidae, probably because there are not enough genera in each subfamily to make its use practical.
Discussions about the relationships among the genera of the Stephanidae have been inconclusive, and a precise definition for each of them is still not available. All genera have been defined almost exclusively on the basis of characters from the wing venation, while many external characters and nearly all internal characters of the family were never investigated, making the group a promising source of discoveries.
The list below presents the currently published genera. Click on a taxon of interst for more detailed information.
Subfamily Schlettererinae Orfila, 1949
Schlettererius Ashmead, 1900
Subfamily Stephaninae Enderlein, 1905
Protostephanus Cockerell, 1906 [extinct]
Electrostephanus Brues, 1933 [extinct]
Stephanus Jurine, 1801
Megischus Brulle, 1846
Hemistephanus Enderlein, 1906
Subfamily Foenatopinae Enderlein, 1905
Diastephanus Enderlein, 1905
Neostephanus Kieffer, 1904
Foenatopus Smith, 1861
Subfamily ?
Parastephanellus Enderlein, 1906 [Apical to Stephaninae; basal to Foenatopinae]
Madegafoenus Benoit, 1951 [Probably part of Stephaninae]
This page last updated: August 20, 1998.