Cryptinae Kirby, 1837

Manukyan, Andranik R. & Zhindarev, Leonid A., 2021, Fossil Darwin wasps (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) from Baltic amber, Palaeoentomology 4 (6), pp. 637-647 : 639

Subfamily Cryptinae Kirby, 1837

Cryptinae is the largest subfamily of Ichneumonidae , about 3,100 species have been described, in 275 genera ( Broad et al., 2018). Mostly species are external parasites of insect pupae and cocoons. The earliest Cryptinae are recorded in the Early Eocene (Green River Formation) ( Spasojevic et al., 2018b). A high occurrence and species diversity were noted in the Beds of the Bembridge marls ( Khalaim, 2014), Florissant ( Brues, 1906, 1910), and Biamo ( Khalaim, 2008). However, they are rare in the Early Eocene Tadushi Formation ( Tolkanitz & Perkovsky, 2018). The subfamily dominates in inclusions of Baltic amber in terms of abundance, constituting more than 44% of the studied samples. The fossil fauna of Baltic amber is completely unrevised and not a single species has been formally described.