If you are someone who lives in squalor, or in New York City, you may notice small black insects flying around the insides of your windows. If so, they might be ensign wasps (Evaniidae) like the one in this week's image. These wasps attack the egg cases, or oothecae, of cockroaches. The wasp larvae eats all of the cockroach eggs and they are thus considered to be predators and not parasitoids. This particular specimen was collected in my backyard near dumpsters which support a population of the Oriental cockroach (Blatta orientalis). Fortunately, this species of cockroach does not invade houses.
Probably Hyptia thoracica.
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