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UC IPM Home > Home,
Gardens, Landscapes, and Turf > Parasites
How to Manage Pests
Pests in Gardens and Landscapes
Parasites
Insect parasites (parasitoids) are
smaller than their hosts and
develop inside, or attached to the
outside, of the host's body. Often,
only the immature stage of the
parasite feeds on the host, and it
kills only one host during its
development. Many caterpillar eggs are destroyed by tiny parasitic
wasps. Most larvae are attacked by one or more larger species
of wasp. For example, redhumped caterpillar larvae are attacked
by two common parasitic
wasps, Hyposoter fugitius and Apanteles sp.
A female Hyposoter wasp injects an egg into an early instar caterpillar; the egg hatches into a larva
that feeds on the body fluids and tissues of the host. The host dies in the third or fourth instar, and
the Hyposoter larva emerges from the host's body, spins a cocoon, and pupates. The adult wasp emerges
from the cocoon to mate and seek new hosts; each female may destroy up to 100 host caterpillars. The life
cycle takes as few
as 15 days, depending on temperature.
Apanteles cocoons |
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Life cycle of a Hyposoter parasite
Redhumped caterpillars parasitized by Hyposoter wasps
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