#encyrtidae

hot topic wasps

Encyrtid Wasp

Encyrtus sp.

This tiny parasitoid wasp was found wandering on the armrest of a particularly cushy library-owned chair. This genus is known to parasitize scale insects, which are often plant pests. I love the little spike of hairs (setae) on their thorax right between the wings and their distinctive walk that led me to notice this little critter in the first place!

Dicarnosis erythrocephala (Encyrtidae)

I had to get this photo off WaspWeb, since the photographs of the one spotted in Yanchep, north of Perth, by Shelly Jordan, were too fuzzy to use. Link to her surprisingly much sharper video here 

That didn’t stop me getting an ID, since the bladed antennae are pretty distinctive, but I did have to ask around - the Encyrtidae are not a very popularly-known family, but extremely important in the field of biological control. 

There’s at least 3700 described species in the family, and about 450 genera. Most are parasitoids of butterflies and moths, but details of the life history can be variable - some attack lepidopteran eggs, some attack caterpillars, others are parasites of existing parasites (and some Encyrtidae develop as parasitoids of ticks).  A number are used as biocontrol agents, but some are ecological threats- the endangered Jamaican Swallowtail loses over 3/4 of its young to Encyrtid parasites. 

Some species display "polyembryony" in which a single egg clones itself inside the host, eventually producing large numbers of identical adult wasps. But even more remarkably, some of the larvae never reach adulthood - they are soldiers, hunting down and killing unrelated larvae, to protect their smaller clone-siblings.

For the record, encyrtid wasps are perfect creatures, and you may not have heard of them, because they're tiny, and wasps. But LOOK 🖤

Encyrtids are important biocontrol agents, pretty much always tiny (biggest one I've found is a few millimeters long), and the most ridiculous, goofy, gorgeous, harmless things. I will get people to love them.