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| Encarsia formosa | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Encarsia formosa 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 sweetpotato 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.[1]
