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Charops Sp.
A small Parasitic Wasp that is black in colour with brown abdomen. It has a very short Ovipositor (Needle Projection to deposit eggs inside hosts) and small clear wings that extend only halfway along its total body length. The wasp uses caterpillars as hosts to lay its eggs in which the larvae hatch and feed. upon completion of feeding the larvae emerges out of the caterpillar and spins a cocoon suspended on a line of silk from the elevated position of the caterpillar corpse. In this case the larvae of the common Garden Acraea butterfly has been used as a host. Several Garden Acarea caterpillars were found in close proximity in the garden with close by wasp cocoons. With out treating the caterpillar problem with pesticides, a natural solution has manifested and we have seen a slow decline of the caterpillars.
Manly located in areas with sufficient food for caterpillars including forests, bushveld and gardens.
Spotted on Sep 26, 2016
Submitted on Sep 26, 2016
8 Comments
cute little R2D2!
Hi guys. Thank you so much for the nomination and editing my spotting. I apologise for the delay in editing it but I am travelling at the moment and the Internet was really bad. Thank you again John for the expertise!!!
Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!
Michael, as we would like to nominate this series for Spotting of the Week I've taken the liberty to edit the title of your spotting as per John La Salle's comment.
Thanks again John for your expertise and continued visits to Project Noah.
Greetings Felix, Daniele and John. Thank you so much for your kind support. Thank you John for your info. My bug book only had its name not the family. I will update the information. :)
Michael - well spotted, and nice information.
Just one note - Charops is an ichneumonid not a braconid.
Indeed great info!
Very interesting info, Michael.