Eucharitid Wasps

Peeters et al (2015) - Among 9 families of wasps parasitic on ants, only Eucharitidae (56 genera) specialize in attacking the immature stages of ants. Unlike most parasitoid wasps, eucharitid females deposit their eggs away from the host, in or on plant tissue (leaves and flower buds). The very active, minute, strongly sclerotized first-instar larvae (‘planidia’) are transported by foraging ants to their nest where they attach to ant larvae and development proceeds once the latter have spun a cocoon (Clausen, 1940; Heraty and Murray, 2013). The eucharitid parasitoids attacking Ponerinae, Ectatomminae, Myrmeciinae and Formicinae belong to a monophyletic derived lineage of Eucharitidae (Murray et al., 2013).

Heraty et al. (2015) - All known Eucharitidae are parasitoids of the immature stages of ants. Larval stages were first described by Wheeler (1907) for Orasema Cameron. The late instar larvae and pupae of Eucharitinae and Oraseminae were then described in a series of early papers summarized by Clausen (1940). The first-instar larvae are highly conservative in their morphology, but late instars can be strikingly ornate with numerous odd protuberances and swellings over the body.

Another oddity of Eucharitidae is the inverse evolutionary association with their ant hosts. Phylogenetic results based on molecular data suggest that the more ancestral eucharitid lineages are associated with more derived groups of ants (e.g., Formicinae and Myrmicinae), and the more derived eucharitid lineages attack the more primitive groups (e.g., Ponerinae) (Murray et al. 2013).