A Parasitoid Wasp Cotesia congregata (Say) (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Braconidae

Figure 1. A group of adult Cotesia congregata (Say) wasps feeding on honey solution placed on the underside of a tomato leaf. Credit: Justin Bredlau, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityThis species of Cotesia has been widely used as a model system in insect physiology. It has also been used to examine insect learning in host-parasitoid-plant interactions. It is an important natural enemy of the tobacco hornworm, a detrimental pest species that feeds on many plants in the Solanaceae (tobacco, pepper, tomato, etc.) family. This 5-page fact sheet was written by Christopher D. Crockett, Andrea Lucky, Oscar E. Liburd, and Karen M. Kester, and published by the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, July 2014.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in1042