Table Of ContentJ.HYM.RES.
Vol.7(1) 1998,pp.124-126
BOOK REVIEW
Annotated Keys to the Genera ofNearctic ofpracticalvaluetoall.Indeed,thisisnot
Chalcidoidea(Hi/nienoptern).GaryA.P.Gib- onlyimperativeingivingcredencetothe
son,JohnT.HuberandJamesB.Woolley idealsoftheConventiononBiologicalDi-
(Editors.). NRC Research Press, Ottawa, versity, but also in provingthe worthof
1997. xi+794 pp. Price: Canada insectsystematistsinaworldofchanging
CAN$64.95,othercountriestheequivalent attitudestoscience.
ofUS$64.95(hardcover).ISBN066016669-0. The17authorsofAnnotatedKeystothe
Ithasbeensaid thatitisdangerousto Genera of Nearctic Chalcidoidea receive
study the Parasitic Hymenoptera, for fullcreditforhavingdoneexactlythat.In
those who do are inclined tobecome al- harnessingtheircollectiveskillstothefull
coholicsorendupinmentalinstitutions. they have produced an outstandingsyn-
Notionsofsuchdespairundoubtedlystem opsisofthe19familiesand706chalcidoid
from the daunting task that confronts generaknowntooccurintheregion.But
thosewhoventuretounraveltheidentity thetruevalueofthisbookliesfarbeyond
ofthisvastandtaxonomicallycomplexas- that of a manual merely for identifying
semblageofenigmaticwasps. specimens.Ititsalsoanimpressiverefer-
The superfamily Chalcidoidea alone encework, crammedwithinvaluableno-
comprisescloseto 19,000validspeciesin menclatural, bibliographical and host in-
2,000genera,withestimatesoftheactual formationontheNearcticchalcidoidfau-
numberofspecies rangingfrombetween na.
60,000to100,000worldwide.Compound- Thebookcomprises22chapters.Thein-
ingthedifficultiesincomingtogripswith troduction, which contains interesting
the identity of this bewildering array of backgroundinformationonthehistoryof
mostlypoorlyknowntaxaistheplethora ChalcidologyinNorthAmerica,numbers
ofscatteredandofteninaccessibledescrip- oftaxaandtherateatwhichgenerahave
tiveliteraturespanningsome200yearsof been described from the region through
taxonomic endeavour on the group. The theyears,isfollowedbyachapteronmor-
task is made even more arduous by a phology. Morphological termspertaining
shortage of essential identification tools tothekeysandvariousfamilydiagnoses
such as modern catalogues, revisions, are conveniently highlighted in bold,
keys and adequately documented refer- clearlyexplainedanddepictedinaseries
ence collections. In Britain, arguably the of uncluttered line drawings and good
cradle of Chalcidology, there are for in- quality scamiing electron micrographs.
stance no modern identification keys for For quick reference, terms are listed al-
morethanhalfofthe5,000orsospecies phabetically ina separateappendixwith
Eonft.HyRmees.no8p7:te2r0a3),(Wmeaenkysoeftawlh.i1c9h97b,eBluolnlg. utrheeisr. Aabbsreecvoinadtioanpspeannddixrecrfoesrse-nrceefetroenfciegs-
tochalcidoidgroups. the abbreviations with terms. The disad-
Whatisclearlyneeded,istotakestock vantage ofhaving this information sepa-
ofwhat is known, collateand synthesize rate, and notinfigurelegendsbelowthe
the vast pool of scattered knowledge, plates, isthatsomepagingisrequired to
muchofwhichisburied ina fewinquir- determine the meanings of the abbrevia-
ingminds,and makeitreadilyaccessible tionsdepictedintheillustrations.
insuchawaythatitisbothpalatableand Chapterthreeprovides,besidesakeyto
Volume7,Number1,1998 125
families,anoverviewoftheChalcidoidea recognition, systematics, biology, fauna
and covers topics such as recognition of andliterature.Forlargerfamiliesauseful
the group, mode of parasitism (feeding indextogenerabasedoncoupletnumbers
types), hostrangesand relationships,be- isalsoincluded.Thesetopicsareallwell
haviour, collecting methods and voucher covered, serving as a concise and infor-
specimens.Writteninclearlanguage,this mative introduction to the 19 familiesas
is essential reading matter which should representedintheNearcticregion.
appeal in particular to the non-specialist Inessence,thisbookisallaboutgeneric
seeking general background information keys to Nearctic chalcidoids, and its real
onthesuperfamilyataglance. value will ultimately be judged by how
The family key is primarily a derived well these keys perform. So I decided to
combination of those found in A Hand- put some of them to the test, selecting
book of the families of Nearctic Chalci- specimensnotonlyfromtheNearcticre-
doideaandHymenopteraoftheWorld.In gion,butalsofromfurtherafield.There-
recognizing 19 families, theauthorshave sultswereexcellent,bearingtestimonyto
optedforthetraditionalsystemofclassi- theskillful and competentway in which
fyingchalcidoidsatthislevel.Considering these keys have been constructed. The
theintendedpurposeofthebookandthe contentsofthecoupletsareunambiguous
instability of the higher classification of andthetaxonomiclanguageeasytocom-
thesewasps,inwhichanythingfromnine prehend.Iwaspleasedtoseethattheau-
to24 familieshavebeenrecognized, this thors have, in all but one of the tested
isasensiblechoice. keys, managed toavoid usingthehandy
Precedingthekeyisaflowchartwhich butdreadful"either/or"methodofsepa-
givesapleasingvisualimpressionofhow rating taxa. All ofthisaddsmuch to the
the19familiesarekeyedoutinthe40cou- relativeeasewithwhichtheuserisguided
plets.Thekeyitselfisvisuallylesspleas- throughthekeys,eveninthecaseofgen-
ing. Placing the figures associated with erawhicharedifficulttodefine.Although
eachalternateofacoupletdirectlyabove thesekeyshavebeendesignedspecifically
itallowsforeasycomparisonbetweenfig- fortheNearcticregion, theywill, ifused
uresand text,butoftenresultsininsuffi- with the necessary insight and care, also
cientspaceforbothalternatesonthesame serveasaveryusefultoolinthestudyof
page. Consequently, many pages are left extra-limital forms, as was evident from
withunsightlyblankspaces,whiletheal- the large selection of Afrotropical speci-
ternates ofsome couplets appear ondif- mens which keyed out perfectly well.
ferent pages, making comparisons some- Greatlyenhancingthevalueofthesekeys
what cumbersome. More important arebriefannotationstoeach genuscom-
though,isthefactthatthekeyworkswell. prisingreferencestoexistingspecieskeys,
Evidently,muchcarefulthoughthasgone estimated numberofspecies, knowndis-
intomakingitbothaccurateandworkable tributionandhostrangeintheregion.
forthenoviceandspecialistalike.Chosen The use of the keys is facilitated by
for diagnostic reliability rather than con- 1,880linedrawingsandscanningelectron
venience, thecharactersarenotnecessar- n\icrographs which, despite the inputs
ily"easy"touse,butbeingappropriately fromavarietyofillustrators,areofacon-
andclearlyillustratedthereshouldbeno sistentlyhighaestheticandtechnicalstan-
probleminkeyingspecimensout. dard.Withtheintendedreadershipofthe
Thebulkoftheremainingtextisdevot- book in mind, a few more eye-catching
edtothefamilytreatments.Eachofthe19 habitus drawings, which are completely
chaptersreviewsonefamilyandincludes, lacking for some families, would have
apart from a generic key, sections on its addedaspecialtouch.
126 JournalofHymenopteraResearch
Thebookconcludeswithfourveryuse- arcticchalcidoids,forourknowledgeand
fulindices.Thefirstonecomprisesabout understanding of the fauna is far from
130 generic and subgeneric chalcidoid complete.Buttheauthorshavesucceeded
names (with their nomenclatural fate) admirably in synthesizing what is pres-
which have become invalid since publi- entlyknownwhileprovidinganexcellent
cationofthemostrecent(1979)editionof framework for further revisionary work
Catalog of Hymenoptera in America on the group. 1 recommend thisbookas
NorthofMexico.Followingthisindexare anindispensablereferenceandidentifica-
separate lists of plant and animal hosts, tiontool foranyone, specialistsand gen-
andsupraspecificchalcidoidnames. eralistsalike,involvedinthestudyofpar-
Insummary, I applaud thecontentsof asiticwasps.
this book, hence the lack of any serious Gerhard Prinsloo, Biosystematics Divi-
criticism. Naturally, this is not the last sionARC-PlantProtectionResearchInstitute
wordonthesupraspecificidentityofNe- Pretoria,SouthAfrica.
