Euderus set
| Euderus set | |
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| A. and B. female; C. male | |
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| A. male right forewing; B. female head; C. male head | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Clade: | Euarthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Eulophidae |
| Genus: | Euderus |
| Species: | E. set |
| Binomial name | |
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Euderus set Egan, Weinersmith, & Forbes, 2017 |
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Euderus set, the crypt-keeper wasp, is a chalcid wasp from the family Eulophidae from the south-eastern United States which is a parasitoid of the gall wasp Bassettia pallida. It was described in 2017 and the description of its life cycle attracted widespread publicity.
The predominant colour of the adult wasp is metallic green to turquoise to iridescent blue, depending on age, with a yellow scape and white tarsi which have a dark brown terminal segment. Females are 1.6mm to 2.3mm in length, males are 1.2mm to 1.6mm.
The type specimen of Euderus set was Inlet Beach, Florida and it has since been recorded from Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. All specimens collected come from the vicinity of live oak trees of the subsection Virentes of the genus Quercus.
The female Euderus set searches for the galls or "crypts" created in the growing stems of the live oaks Quercus virginiana and Q. geminata by the asexual generation of the gall-wasp Bassettia pallida and oviposits in the chamber of the gall. When the egg hatches the larva of E. set burrows into the larva of B. pallida. It then manipulates the host so that it speeds up its development, metamorphoses into an adult and chews its way up to the surface months earlier than normal but the burrow is not wide enough for the host adult to emerge from the stem and its head becomes stuck. The E. set larva then consumes the host and chews through its head to emerge as an adult. The mechanism used to manipulate the host is not known. The larvae overwinter in the gall eating the host and emerge in the following spring. If the adults of E set have to excavate their own exit tunnel through the plant tissue themselves they are three times more likely to die as adults which have the host excavate the tunnel.
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Wikipedia