Nasonia vitripennis (Walker, 1836)

Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Pteromalidae

Female: Body length 1.8-2.3 mm. Body black with green-blue metallic shine and bronzy reflections. Head wider than mesosoma. Antenna black (except scape and pedicel brown); shorter than mesosoma; inserted at the level of ventral edge of eyes. Scape spindle shaped; pedicel elongated, longer than first two funicular segments combined; all funicular segments transverse. Legs with coxae black, femora brown, tibiae yellowish brown, tarsi paler except for the extreme apices. Mesoscutum and scutellum with delicate, mostly engraved, reticulation. Notauli incomplete. Propodeum with a moderate-sized reticulate nucha. Fore wing with stigmal vein shorter than marginal vein and post marginal vein. Stigmal vein setose with typical irregular outline of stigma which distinguishes this species from congeners. Post marginal vein 0.96x marginal vein and 1.34x stigmal vein. Discal setae and fringe of marginal setae dark in colour. Metasoma oval, sessile, a little shorter than mesosoma.

Male: Brachypterous; with short, narrow, setose fore wings. Femora paler in colour (dark brown in female).

 Mesosoma
 Wing
 Propodeum

 Female - dorsal view

Cosmopolitan. India: Karnataka and Delhi.

Wasps of the genus Nasonia are important biological control agents of house flies and related filth flies, which are major vectors of human pathogens.

Nasonia vitripennis is mainly parasitic on Diptera (Calliphoridae, Muscidae and Sarcophagidae), also reared from Diptera of other families; list of hosts given in Peck (1963: 711). From India-Karnataka, these specimens were reared from Chrysomya megacephala (Fabricius).

Photo credit: Dr. J. Poorani; factsheet prepared by Ankita Gupta.