Welcome

Ichneumonids are a fascinating group of parasitoid wasps with over 25,000 described species of approximately 100,000 total species. In North America (north of Mexico), there are over 5,500 described species and probably several thousand undescribed species. Like many hyperdiverse groups, identification resources and other information about ichneumonids are severely lacking relative to their diversity and has hindered research. In addition to the many undescribed species our knowledge of species distributions, biology, behavior, ecology and phenology is poor for almost all ichneumonid taxa. It is therefore imperative to accelerate the pace of research to better understand one of the most diverse families of organisms on Earth.

Ichneumonids of North America is an online resource for synthesizing, organizing, and disseminating knowledge of ichneumonid biodiversity in North America. It was created in 2022 by Brandon Claridge. This ongoing project seeks to encourage greater interest in ichneumonids among both researchers and the general public by facilitating accurate identifications and access to taxonomic information. The website generally follows the principles of an "e-monograph" or "e-flora/fauna" by seeking to be a one-stop-shop repository that is comprehensive, up-to-date, and takes full advantage of the interactivity and ability to customize content presentation afforded by modern development tools. However, due to time and resource constraints, the project is currently limited to the subfamily Ichneumoninae and is far from its envisioned goal.

Guide

Visit the guide page to get started. There you will find the main gallery for Ichneumoninae which can be filtered by chromatic and morphological characters, distribution and taxonomy. All genera are represented in the gallery but only a minority of the species. Additional information including a tribal key and generic keys to Ichneumonini and Phaeogenini (still in development) can be accessed via the tabs at the top of the page. Links to generic pages are found on the side bar.

For identification to subfamily, please use the subfamily classifier which will identify a specimen based on an image of the frontal view of the head.