Eucharitidae

Family of wasps

The Eucharitidae are a family of parasitic wasps. Eucharitid wasps are members of the superfamily Chalcidoidea and consist of three subfamilies: Oraseminae, Eucharitinae, and Gollumiellinae. Most of the 55 genera and 417 species of Eucharitidae are members of the subfamilies Oraseminae and Eucharitinae, and are found in tropical regions of the world. Eucharitid parasitism occurs year round, with a majority of it occurring during hot and humid months. However, the amount of parasitism that occurs depends primarily on the size of the ant colony and the number of host pupae in them, and not on the season. The eggs are a translucent white and are about 0.19 mm long and 0.08 mm wide. They are elliptical and flat on one side. As the eggs mature, they turn a brown color and ten days after oviposition, they hatch. After mating, the females lay all their eggs in one day. The egg capacity of each female is 1000 to 10000. The main anatomical characteristics of eucharitid wasps are:
The prepectus lies in the same plane as, and fused, to pronotum. The pronotum is small and hidden by the head dorsally. The gaster is usually relatively small with a very long petiole. The forewing marginal vein is moderately long and stigmal, and the postmarginal veins are extremely short. Moderately large, about 2.0 to 5.4 mm in length.

The number of subfamilies of Eucharitidae has changed over the years, but the three most widely accepted are Oraseminae, Eucharitinae, and Gollumiellinae.

Oraseminae are parasitic on the ant genus Pheidole (Myrmicinae), as well as the fire ant in southern South America and the little red fire ant in the Caribbean. and Colorado. or “insect prey” that will eventually be devoured by ants. the wasps disguise themselves by passively obtaining the odor of the fire ants. After a few days in the nest, the odor wears off and the ants begin to notice the wasps are not a part of their brood. At this point, the wasps leave the nest to mate and lay eggs.

Eucharitids are candidates for biological control because each subfamily targets a specific ant genus. On the other hand, some eucharitids, including the genus Kapala, are classified as pests for several different reasons. First, a few days after oviposition occurs, the leaves dry up where each egg was located. Second, tea leaves with such marks reportedly do not have as strong of a flavor as tea leaves without these marks. Third, not all eucharitids have a significant effect on the size of their hosts' colony. Orasema species are sometimes used as means of biological control for many ants, including the fire ant and little fire ant, because pesticides can cause damage to the environment, and they do not always work on fire ants. In addition, at least two eucharitid species groups are specialized parasites of these ants. Heraty stated, “Leaving aside the philosophical problems associated with introducing any organism for biological control, I believe that species of Orasema do have potential as biological control agents and deserve more study.”