Common Name: Parasitoid Wasp
Family: Platygastridae
Genus: Trissolcus
Species: sp.
Observer(s): Charley Eiseman
Notes: This tiny wasp lives out most of its life cycle inside a single stink bug egg. Here a female is guarding a pile of predatory stink bug eggs. She has already stung these eggs and inserted her own eggs. Her larvae will eat the developing stink bugs from the inside out then pupate within the egg and emerge as adults. Sometimes a female wasp will actually draw patterns on the surface of the prey eggs (like figure 8's) to tell other wasps to avoid these eggs she has already claimed.
Go to Charley's Blog to read more aboutwasps etching figure 8's or to seephotos of a wasp emerging from a stink bug egg.