Green vegetable bug egg parasitoid

Trissolcus basalis · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Scelionidae

Also called: Parasitoid wasp

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Green vegetable bug egg parasitoid
Photo: Tom Saunders, CC BY

Trissolcus basalis is a solitary endoparasitoid that develops inside the eggs of stink-bug species such as Nezara viridula. It has been deliberately introduced to New Zealand, Australia, the United States and several Central European countries to help control crop-damaging pentatomid bugs.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

The wasp has been released in New Zealand to control green-bean and sweet-corn pests and is now found on several non-target stink-bug hosts there.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Females locate and parasitize eggs of the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula, using their club-shaped antennae. The species develops as a solitary endoparasitoid inside the eggs of various pentatomid bugs.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Males emerge from unfertilized eggs first, followed a few days later by females, which are then mated as they exit the egg.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

It has been introduced to the United States as a biocontrol agent.

Source: Wikipedia

Lookalikes

The same morphological characters used for identification (coriaceous mesoscutellum microsculpture, pustulate setal bases, shallow episternal foveae, incomplete netrion sulcus) separate it from other Nearctic Trissolcus species.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 7 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Hawaii, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, California, Kansas.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Questions people ask

What insects does Trissolcus basalis parasitize?

It parasitizes the eggs of stink-bug species, especially the southern green stink bug Nezara viridula.

Source: Wikipedia

Is Trissolcus basalis used for pest control?

Yes, it has been released in several countries to help control crop-damaging pentatomid bugs.

Source: Wikipedia

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trissolcus_basalis

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-29 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-29.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.