page_title: Encarsia formosa
section_title: Life cycle
hierarchical_section_title: Encarsia formosa / Life cycle
caption_attribution_description: Diagram illustrating the life cycles of Greenhouse whitefly and its parasitoid wasp Encarsia formosa. Wasp inserts its egg into a whitefly larva that has reached its third developmental stage, egg hatches and the young wasp larva eats the whitefly nymph from within. Unparasitized whitefly gives rise to second generation adults. Revised by PMcM on 15 September, 2004 based on existing image.
context_page_description: Encarsia formosa is a species of chalcidoid wasp and a well known parasitoid of greenhouse whitefly, one of the first to be used commercially for biological pest control, from the 1920s. They can use at least 15 species of whitefly as a host, including Bemisia tabaci and Aleyrodes proletella.
  The tiny females are black with a yellow abdomen and opalescent wings. This species reproduces asexually via thelytoky induced by Wolbachia infection. Males are produced only rarely. They are slightly larger than females and are completely black in coloration.
context_section_description: Females deposit 50-100 eggs individually inside the bodies of 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 sweet potato 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.
caption: Diagram illustrating the life cycles of Greenhouse whitefly and its parasitoid wasp Encarsia formosa
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