The superfamily Chalcidoidea are part of the order Hymenoptera and comprise some 22,500 known species, most of which are parasitoids, attacking the egg or larval stage of their host. This book is an historic milestone, and presents a reclassification of this important group for generations to come.

Contributions by: Austin Baker, Hannes Baur, Julie Böhmová, Matthew L. Buffington, Roger A.Burks, Matthew Cock, Astrid Cruaud, Ana Dal Molin, Natalie Dale-Skey, Christopher Darling, Gerard Delvare, Priscila G. Dias, Tiffany Domer, Chrysalyn Dominguez, Fernando H.A. Farache, Lucian Fusu, Michael W. Gates, Marco Gebiola, Alex V. Gumovsky, Michael Haas, Paul Hanson, Christer Hansson, Judith Herreid, Keith Hopper, J T Huber, Martha Hunter, Randa Jabbour, Petr Janšta, Robert Luke Kresslein, Lars Krogmann, Amelia Lindsey, Kerry E. Mauck, Mircea-Dan Mitroiu, Jason L. Mottern, José Luis Nieves-Aldrey, John S Noyes, Ryan K. Perry, Ralph Peters, John Pinto, Andrew Polaszek, Alexey A. Polilov, Jean-Yves Rasplus, Javier Torréns, Serguei V. Triapitsyn , Jonah M. Ulmer, Roy G. Van Driesche, Simon van Noort, Ionela-Madalina Viciriuc, Jack Werren, Rachel L. Winston, Y. Miles Zhang