[en] Members of the subfamily Charipinae (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Figitidae) are secondary parasitoids of aphids via Aphidiinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) and Aphelininae (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) and secondary parasitoids of psylids via Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). The charipines affect effectiveness of the primary parasitoids by decreasing their abundance and modifying their behavior. As a result, increase of aphid host populations can cause severe yield losses in some of the most important crops. Therefore, studies on the subfamily Charipinae have a great economical and biological importance. This subfamily was until now in a chaotic state with a null phylogenetic knowledge, with many described species within the last and a half century but without any deep revision of them, nor any study of the generic internal relationship. Before focus on ecological and molecular detailed studies based on charipines, it was necessary to carry out a basic taxonomic revision of this group. As well as study their diversity and distribution patterns, which has considerably helped to the identification of species we are working with. This has been the main objective during the last years, started with the updated worldwide catalogue of this subfamily. The knowledge about the subfamily Charipinae has been significantly increased, with special attention to the Alloxysta and Phaenoglyphis, the most abundant and widely distributed genera within this subfamily; these genera are also the most important affecting to the practices of aphid biological control. As a first step, it has been revised the type material of the Alloxysta, Apocharips and Phaenoglyphis genera in order to complete the revision of this subfamily. Thanks to the study of this type material, with the revision of many specimens deposited in different institutions and sent to the University of Barcelona, it has been possible to establish the interspecific limits based on morphological features, making new synonymies or breaking down groups of species when it has been necessary. On the other hand, a complete faunistic revision of the members of this subfamily has been due to term, thanks to these studies the knowledge about the diversity and distribution patterns of the Charipinae has been greatly increased. The Charipinae is a cosmopolitan subfamily, well distributed around the five biogeographical regions: Oriental, Australia, Africa, Neotropical and Nearctic. For the preparation of this thesis we have selected twelve papers as examples to illustrate the achievements of the objectives proposed. The first three papers show the taxonomic revisions that have been carried out to validate and establish the correct taxonomic status of all the Charipinae species, the next two explain how we have dealt with some taxonomic problems we have found during these studies, another pointing to the importance of the revision of the material deposited in different institutions, five focused on the biodiversity revisions made in every continent establishing many new records and describing many new species, and an example of the a work which not only study the Charipinae biodiversity also new trophic relationships are discovered. As a complement we include all the new species which are still under review and which will be included in the new update catalogue that we have prepared after all the revisions and in the complete Charipinae keys. All the information recompiled during these years of studies will be soon available to be consulted on a website that we are working on at this moment in order to maximize the disclosure of our results, as well as in different papers. With this thesis the taxonomy of the subfamily Charipinae is now solved and new studies from different points of view (molecular and ecology) could be proposed to continue with the studies focus on this interesting group of wasps.

[es] Los miembros de la subfamilia Charipinae (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Figitidae) son parasitoides secundarios de pulgones via Aphidiinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) y Aphelinidae (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) y parasitoides secundarios de psílidos via Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea). Los charipinos afectan a la efectividad de los parasitoides primarios disminuyendo su abundancia y modificando su comportamiento. Como resultado, las poblaciones de pulgones aumentan y pueden ocasionar importantes pérdidas en cultivos. Por lo tanto, los estudios basados en la subfamilia Charipinae tienen una importancia económica y biológica. Esta subfamilia estaba hasta ahora en un estado caótico con un conocimiento filogenético nulo, con muchas especies descritas en el último siglo y medio pero sin ninguna revisión profunda de las mismas, ni ningún estudio sobre las relaciones internas de sus géneros. De los 35 artículos que se han elaborado durante esta Tesis, doce han sido seleccionados para ilustrar el logro de los objetivos propuestos. Los primeros tres artículos muestran cómo se han realizado las revisiones taxonómicas para establecer el correcto estado taxonómico de todas las especies, los dos siguientes explican cómo hemos actuado para resolver algunos problemas taxonómicos, otro artículo se centra en la importancia de las revisiones del material depositado en diferentes instituciones, cinco artículos muestran las revisiones faunísticas hechas en las diferentes regiones geográficas con el establecimiento de numerosos nuevos registros así como la descripción de nuevas especies, y por último hemos incluido un ejemplo de los trabajos donde no solo se estudia la biodiversidad de una zona sino también obtenemos nueva información sobre las relaciones tróficas de los charipinos. También incluimos un apartado con todas las nuevas especies que se encuentran todavía en revisión y que van a ser incluidas en el nuevo catálogo actualizado y en las claves mundiales. Toda la información recopilada estará pronto disponible en la página web que hemos creado de uso abierto para la comunidad con el objetivo de maximizar la difusión de nuestros resultados y de autores precedentes. Con esta Tesis podemos considerar que la taxonomía de los Charipinae está resuelta y nos encontramos en posición de embarcarnos en el estudio de esta subfamilia desde otros puntos de vista (molecular y ecológico).