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Braconid Wasps

Many years ago, at a time when my wife was 8-months pregnant, we took in a movie but were not very particular in our choice. Two hours later, after seeing the original Alien , she said, "That was a big mistake. Where was Mary Poppins when we needed her?"

This visceral reaction to the idea of foreign "things" living inside other animals, including ourselves, must come from a long human history of living with the likes of tapeworms, pinworms and scabies. Or, taking an analytical view of the natural world, it could be described as one big transfer of nutrients from one organism to another. Within that simple model, unlimited ways exist in which the materials of one organism can be borrowed or hijacked by another. The braconid mini-wasps fit the profile; they are insects that fulfill their life cycle by inhabiting the bodies of other creatures.

The braconid family is in the Order Hymenoptera, which includes other bees and wasps, but all 1,700 North American species in this family are stingless, and so small you have to pay close attention to see them. They can be almost invisible, at 2 to 3 millimeters long, or veritable giants at 15 millimeters (about 5/8 inch). Antennae will usually be noticeable and a visible ovipositor (not a stinger) is common to many species. Most will be black or brown, but a few have some color. Braconids are short and stocky—the abdomen is about the same length as the head and thorax combined. Unlike other wasps, braconids do not have skinny "waists." They can be confused with small flies.

Different braconids are parasitic on army worms, eastern tent caterpillars, corn borers, cotton bollworms, alfalfa weevils, wheat-stem sawflies and Douglas-fir bark beetles, just to name a few. In the garden and orchard, this beneficial parasitism occurs on aphids, coddling moths, tomato hornworms, garden webworms and on many different caterpillars, beetles and flies.