(Hymenoptera)  Trichogramma spp.

(photo courtesy of Max Badgely)

Lepidopteran Egg Parasite

Trichogramma are tiny wasps that kill the eggs of lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).  Trichogramma accomplish this by laying one or more of their own eggs inside the much larger eggs of lepidoptera.  The Trichogramma egg hatches into a small larva, which feeds on the inside of the moth egg, thereby killing it.  After 8-10 days of feeding and developing, an adult Trichogramma wasp chews out through the shell of the moth egg.  It mates and the cycle begins again.