Species Aleiodes terminalis - Terminal Mummy Wasp

Terminal mummy wasp

a-lee-OH-deez tr-min-A-liss

"terminalis" may refer to the fact that the last 2 segments of the metasoma are black, while the basal 2 are bright orange.

5 - 8 mm

Body 2-colored, orange and black. ocelli small, distance between eye and lateral ocellus about equal to ocellus width. Hind tibia black with light yellowish-white band on basal third. Hind tarsomeres black. Tarsal claws not pectinate. Can be distinguished from similarly colored species by the pale band on the hind tibia.

Across the Nearctic into Mexico. Probably the most commonly collected Aleiodes species in the East.

Female attacks Noctuidae larvae. Host records from Mythinma unipuncta (Haworth), Nephelodes minians Guenee, Spodoptera frugiperda (Smith), Spodoptera ornithogalli (Guenee, and Xestia smithii (Snellen).

In Maryland, 4 to 6 generations per year.

Superficially similar (coloration) to A. parasiticus, except unlike that species this species has an all black mesosoma.

Marsh, P. M. and S. R. Shaw. 2001. Revision of North American Aleiodes Wesmael (Part 6): the gasterator (Jurine) and unipunctator (Thunberg) species-groups (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Rogadinae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 103: 291 - 307.

Shaw, S. R. 2006. Aleiodes Wasps of Eastern Forests: A Guide to Parasitoids and Associated Mummified Caterpillars. Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team.