White Butterfly Parasite

Description:

These Tiny Parasitic wasps have just started hatching from their eggs after they emerged as larvae out of the Caterpillars of the Cabbage White butterfly that were eating our Nasturtium Plants. At first I thought it was the Cabbage white Caterpillars themselves pupating but under closer inspection, larvae had emerged out of the caterpillars and spun up to 20 yellow silk cocoons. It has been around 10 days to two weeks and the adult wasps have finally hatched. Upon hatching the new adult wasps do not fly off but remain to mate with other hatching adults. Mating occurs almost immediate after hatching and the females then fly off to lay eggs in new caterpillars. Although they use caterpillars as a food source for their larvae, the wasp adults themselves feed on nectar. It is thought that the adult wasps seek out the chemicals emitted by plants under caterpillar attack and use that as a beacon to find the caterpillars. The wasp larvae themselves are parasitized by another wasp called Lysibia Nana after they pupate and at first I thought this is what was happening as the wasps remained on the eggs and did not leave. After some reading I found this is normal behaviour by the new adults as mentioned above to facilitate immediate reproduction.

Habitat:

Diverse range from veld to gardens.