How to Manage Pests
Identification: Natural Enemies Gallery
Trioxys pallidus
Scientific name: Trioxys pallidus
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Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Aphidiidae
Host: Walnut aphid on walnuts
Commercially available: No
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This wasp was introduced to California from France for control of walnut aphid. Since its establishment in the late 1960s it has virtually eliminated the walnut aphid as a pest in most orchards, except when disrupted by broad-spectrum pesticides applied for other pests.
The adult wasp has a shiny black head and thorax and a long, slender, yellowish or orangish abdomen. The adult is roughly 2 to 3 mm (0.08–0.12 inch) long. Trioxys pallidus undergoes complete metamorphosis. The female wasp lays an egg inside aphid nymphs. The egg hatches into a larva, which consumes the inside of the aphid and pupates in the mummified aphid. The adult wasps emerge through a small exit hole. To monitor for Trioxys pallidus, look for aphid mummies.
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