Insect Images:

All images on the index page (if you hit 'refresh' or 'reload' the image will change) and the one in our menu bar to the left were acquired from Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs' wonderful caterpillar-rearing website. They are all pictures of caterpillars with microgastrine braconid cocoons attached or with microgastrine larvae spinning cocoons (at least one picture represents braconids in the subfamily Meteorinae though!).

The pictures of adult wasps were taken by our own Won-Young Coi (see People page).

Braconid wasps in the subfamily Microgastrinae are mostly (>99%) parasitoids of lepidopteran larvae. They form one of the most speciose groups of insects and are extremely common and frequently collected. The research conducted in our lab is more or less centered around Microgastrinae and other related subfamilies in the Braconidae (Cardiochilinae, Miracinae, etc.). Check out our research page for more details!