Encarsia formosa
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Encarsia formosa is a species of chalcidoid wasp and a well known parasitoid of greenhouse whitefly, one of the first to be used commercially for biological pest control, from the 1920s. Its use fell
Tomato leaf with whitefly nymphs (white), some of them visibly parasitized by E. formosa (black)
The parasitoid is sold commercially for biological control of whitefly, an insect pest of tomato and other greenhouse crops.
Parasitoid
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A parasitoid is an organism that lives in close association with its host at the host's expense, eventually resulting in the death of the host. Parasitoidism is one of six major evolutionary strategie
A parasitoid wasp (Trioxys complanatus, Aphidiinae) ovipositing into the body of a spotted alfalfa aphid (Therioaphis maculata, Calaphidinae), a behaviour that is used in biological pest control
A hyperparasitoid chalcidoid wasp on the cocoons of its host, a braconid wasp, itself a koinobiont parasitoid of Lepidoptera
The head of a sessile female strepsipteran protruding (lower right) from the abdomen of its wasp host; the male (not shown) has wings