Encyrtinae Tetracneminae Encyrtidae is a large family of parasitic wasps, with some 3710 described species in about 455 genera.

They are found throughout the world in virtually all habitats, and are extremely important as biological control agents.

Some species exhibit a remarkable developmental phenomenon called "polyembryony", in which a single egg multiplies clonally in the host and produces large numbers of identical adult wasps.

[2] Wasps in this family are relatively easy to separate from other Chalcidoidea by features of the wing venation, the migration of the cerci forwards on the metasoma (and accompanying distortion of the tergites), and a greatly enlarged mesopleuron with anteriorly positioned mesocoxae.

An extinct genus Archencyrtus has been described from the Middle Eocene age Sakhalin amber in Eastern Russia.