Crawlies with Cri – Brachymeria ovata

macro photo of a small chalcid wasp on fine white netting. they are facing a little up and to the right. they are all black with yellow legs that have black bands.
Brachymeria ovata chalcid wasp, cute and beneficial. Photo by Christy Solo

By Christy Solo – ONPA 1st Place Award Winner for Best Local Column

This week’s crawly is a petite but potent pest controller. Meet Brachymeria ovata an adorable little chalcid wasp with a tongue twister of a genus name (pronounced Bruh-chi-mer-E-ah) – yup. We’ll call them “ovata” for brevity and to avoid spraining our tongues.

There are 26 species of Brachymeriain North America but ovata is one of just a few of those who…

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