Résumé
Chalcidoidea is one of the most species-rich and morphologically diverse superfamily of Hymenoptera. Chalcid wasps encompass important ecological role by regulating insect populations in most ecosystems of the earth. However, the evolutionary history of the superfamily is still poorly understood. In our study, we used more than 1000 Ultra-Conserved Elements (UCEs) to reconstruct higher-level relationships within Chalcidoidea. We included members of all major lineages (701 species (692 ingroups + 9 outgroups), representing 23 families of chalcids, 93 subfamilies, 154 tribes and 582 genera). We will discuss, our main results and the difficulties we had to resolve the backbone of the chalcid radiation. Among the 23 families represented, 17 were recovered monophyletic (#75%); 6 poly- or paraphyletic (namely Chalcididae, Aphelinidae, Eulophidae, and Perilampidae; two families literally exploded respectively in 6 and 25 independent clades (Eupelmidae and Pteromalidae, the garbage can of the superfamily). Finally, we investigated the timing and patterns of diversification of chalcids wasps and propose a new time-scale for the evolution of the superfamily.