Celebrity-names
Guides
Aleiodes
mummy-wasps, Common Mummy Wasps
Aleiodes is a large cosmopolitan genus of parasitoid wasps in the family Braconidae, commonly known as mummy-wasps. The genus was established by Constantin Wesmael in 1838 and contains thousands of described species, with exceptional diversity in the Western Hemisphere. Females are solitary koinobiont endoparasitoids that attack caterpillars, laying eggs inside living hosts. The developing wasp larvae consume the host from within, eventually killing it and causing the remains to harden into a distinctive 'mummy' from which the adult emerges.