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Eucharitidae
The Eucharitidae are a family of parasitic wasps known as eucharitid wasps.[1] Eucharitid wasps are members of the superfamily Chalcidoidea and consist of three subfamilies: Oraseminae, Eucharitinae, and Gollumiellinae. Most of the 55 genera and 417 species of Eucharitidae are members of the Oraseminae and Eucharitinae subfamilies, and are found in tropical regions of the world. Eucharitids are specialized parasitoids of ants, meaning each species is usually only parasitic of one genus of ant. Furthermore, they are one of the few parasitoids that have been able to use ants as hosts, despite ants’ effective defense systems against most parasitoids. Eucharitid parasitism occurs year round, with a majority of it occurring during hot and humid months. However, the amount of parasitism that occurs depends primarily on the size of the ant colony and the number of host pupae in them, and not on the season.
Marginal forest, cultivated and populated land.
Spotted on Mar 22, 2014
Submitted on Jul 9, 2014
2 Comments
@ John La Salle thank you for the ID sir.
Shekainah - Fantastic spotting. This is a chalcid wasp in the family Eucharitidae.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharitida...
These are parastioids of ants. The females (like the one in your picture) scatter lots of eggs on plants, and hope that when the larvae hatch they can grab onto a passing ant and get carried back to the nest where they drop off in the nursery and develop by eating an ant larvae.