The Chalcidoidea superfamily of parasitic wasps - probably the most challenging of all the insect groups - is home to around 1800 mainly very small species that are notoriously difficult to identify even with microscopic examination. They are separated into sixteen families, some of which comprise just a single, or only a few, species, while others, notably the Eulophidae and Pteromalidae, include many hundreds.

 

Eulophidae, the second largest family with just over 500 species, are primary parasitoids of leaf-mining larvae of Lepidoptera, Diptera and Coleoptera. The family as a whole though is very diverse, as would be expected of such a large assemblage of species, with many variations of host preferences and modes of parasitism.

 

Although it's possible to distinguish members of this family from certain morphological features, including having four-segmented tarsi, the species are typically very small with very few that can be reliably identified from photos. Fortunately, the bright metallic-green individual featured here is one of the larger species at around 6mm long and certainly one of the more visually distinctive.

 

It was confirmed as a Sympiesis sp. by an expert who specialises in chalcid wasps, and subsequently considered as very likely a female Sympiesis dolichogaster.

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