Trichogramma minutum Riley

(Insecta: Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Trichogramma minutum is generalist parasitoid that parasitizes the eggs of numerous lepidopteran species, including cutworms, borers, armyworms, leaf worms, loopers and leaf rollers.

Adults are tiny wasps smaller than 1 mm. Large, red eyes contrast with the yellow head, body, and legs. Antennae are short and clubbed.

Depending on the size of the host egg, a female lays one to three eggs into a host egg. Larval and pupal development are completed within the host egg, and pupae may overwinter therein. Emerging adults chew an exit hole out of the dead host egg.

Trichogramma minutum is native to the United States and has been mass-reared and released as a biological control agent as early as 1927 in Louisiana sugarcane fields and in the 1940s in Florida. It is commercially available.

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Adult wasp of Trichogramma minutum Riley

(Photographer: Lyle Buss, University of Florida)

Adult wasp of Trichogramma minutum Riley on foliage

(Photographer: Lyle Buss, University of Florida)

Trichogramma minutum Riley wasps emerging from parasitized moth eggs

(Photographer: Lyle Buss, University of Florida)