Dec 28, 2023
#2040 - Fam. Aulacidae
Photo by Patrick Wake
It appears that the last time anybody looked at the Aulacid diversity in Western Australia (back in 2004), there were 6 species, and all of them were new to science. And that was the first taxonomic study of Australian Aulacids in 50 years.
It's not a particuarly big family - a 2001 paper catalogued 48 species of Aulacus, and 106 species of Pristaulacus (both genera widely spread, worldwide), and two species of Panaulix is confined to sub-Saharan Africa. They parasitise wood-bring beetles in the Cerambycid and Buprestid families, and woodboring wasps in the Xiphydriidae, but all the ones from Australia that we know anything about target the beetles.
