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Project Noah Nature School
Eucharitidae
I think this tiny wasp, with about 2 or 3mm, is a specialized Eucharitid wasp parasitoid of ants. I can find many wasp Eucharitid in leaves of weeds in the grass, where there are colonies of ants. I would like to get better pictures, but my camera is extremely limited for very small insects.
Spotted on May 22, 2014
Submitted on May 22, 2014
4 Comments
Beautiful series. Congratulations!
John thanks again for your comment, always informative and educational.
Thank you, Maria.
Sckel - what a fantastic little wasp. And you are indeed correct that it is a Eucharitidae. The biology of these is really cool. The female lays many eggs on plants around ant nests, and when the eggs hatch the wasp larvae try to grab on to a passing ant so that they are carried back to the nest where the developing ant larvae and pupae are. They then develop to adulthood by eating the immature ants!
I think these are marvelous close-up shots of this unusual wasp!