November 2009. The Cook Islands sent a photo of a very distinctive wingless hymenoptera that hatched from a cocoon (5 mm in length) found on a taro leaf on the remote Northern group island of Pukapuka last month. These cocoons where very common in a taro plot infested with mites, aphids and the taro leafhopper.

It was identified as a wasp in the family Dryinidae. These are parasitoids mainly of Cicadelloidea and Fulgoroidea. Dryinid larvae often develop within sacs that extend outside the host abdomen and can be visible as protrusions from the nymph host.