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Wasps Are Our Friends: Part IV

When most people think of wasps, they imagine a stereotypically striped stinging insect. Such wasps are part of the family Vespidae, but they are, in fact, a minority of species and unrepresentative of their order.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


When most people think of wasps, they imagine a stereotypically striped stinging insect. Such wasps are part of the family Vespidae, but they are, in fact, a minority of species and unrepresentative of their order. Taken by sheer number of species, the average wasp is quite a different animal: timid, stingless, and very, very small.

Encarsia pergandiella is scarcely larger than a speck of dust. This particular speck, however, is our friend. Encarsia is used extensively in agriculture as a natural control of the silverleaf whitefly, a pest of tomatoes, cotton, cucumbers, and other crops. Like the majority of wasps, Encarsia is not aggressive and does not sting.



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photo details:

Canon MP-E 65mm 1-5x lens on 12mm of extension on a Canon 20D

ISO 100, f/10, 1/250 sec

diffuse off-camera flash

Alex Wild is Curator of Entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, where he studies the evolutionary history of ants. In 2003 he founded a photography business as an aesthetic complement to his scientific work, and his natural history photographs appear in numerous museums, books and media outlets.

More by Alex Wild