Encarsia formosa

Taxobox
name = "Encarsia formosa"


image_caption=
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hymenoptera
subordo = Apocrita
superfamilia = Chalcidoidea
familia = Aphelinidae
genus = "Encarsia"
species = "E. formosa"
binomial = "Encarsia formosa"
binomial_authority = Gahan, 1924

"Encarsia formosa" is a species of wasp. The wasps are parasitoids which use greenhouse whitefly as a host. The tiny females (about 0.6 mm long) are black with a yellow abdomen and opalescent wings. Males are extremely rare by comparison to females. They are also slightly larger and are completely black in coloration.

Life cycle

Females deposit 50-100 eggs individually inside the bodies of third instar nymphs or pupae of the host species. The wasp larvae develop through four instars in about two weeks at optimum temperatures. Parasitized greenhouse whitefly pupae turn black in about 10 days, while parasitized sweet potato whiteflies turn amber brown. Both are easily distinguished from unparasitized host pupae. Wasp pupation occurs within the whitefly body. Adult wasps emerge about 10 days later.

Use in biological control

Encarsia has been used as a natural pesticide to control whitefly populations in greenhouses since the 1920s. Use of the insect fell out of fashion due to the increased prevalence of chemical pesticides and was essentially non-existent by the 1940s. Since the 1970s Encarsia has seen something of a revival, with renewed usage in European and Russian greenhouses. [ [http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.ento.43.1.645?cookieSet=1] MS Hoddle et al. (1998) Annual Review of Entomology Vol. 43: 645-669]

References