Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#599608
monarch wasp

monarch wasp
Brooklyn Heights, kings County, New York, USA
December 6, 2011
This monarch chrysalis was being monitored for a school project. This morning it was covered with little insects that the photographer thinks are wasps. Any information about what might be preying on a monarch like this? Chalcids, maybe? Sorry the photo is so bad. It was taken on someone's cell phone.

Images of this individual: tag all
monarch wasp monarch wasp

Moved
Moved from "Parasitica" (parasitic Apocrita)... to Chalcidoidea for now.

Chalcids…
These do appear to be chalcids. Can't see a lot of details, but based on the size and numbers emerging from this chrysalis, they may be Pteromalus puparum, a species of pteromalid that often attacks monarchs. See a reference to this species here.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
Moved to the parasitoid wasp section to increase the chances that the right person will see this... they appear to me to be chalcids (Chalcidoidea), and I'm not sure you'll be able to get a much more specific ID with these photos, but these photos have value in showing what a parasitized chrysalis looks like.