Brachymeria podagrica

Latin Name	Observation Date	Location
Brachymeria podagrica	May 19, 2026	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

I saw this insect sitting on a green leaf. They usually move around alone and are in search of prey.

​Name and identification:
After taking the picture, I searched i-Naturalist and Google to find out its scientific name Brachymeria podagrica. It is basically a parasitic wasp or wasp of the 'Chalcididae' family. If you look at the picture, you will see that its hind legs are quite swollen and reddish-brown in color, which is like a teardrop. Even though the whole body is black, they are very easily recognized because of these legs.

​Size:
They are smaller than a grain of wheat! They are only 5 to 7 millimeters (mm) long. Due to their small size, taking a perfect picture of them is quite challenging.

​Habitat and habitat:
They do not build a hive in groups like bees or common wasps. They are mainly solitary and are usually seen where there is a high infestation of harmful flies or insects.

​Food and Prey:
Their main target or prey is various harmful flies (filth flies) and the larvae or pupae of other insects.

​Reproduction:
Their reproduction process is quite strange. The female insects lay their eggs inside the pupae (shells) of harmful flies or other insects. After the eggs hatch, the larvae grow inside by eating that fly and come out as full-fledged insects.

​Benefits:
By destroying the larvae of harmful flies and other insects, they naturally maintain the balance of the environment (biological control). They are a very beneficial friend of farmers and nature.

​Harmfulness:
When we hear the name wasp or wasp, the fear of being stung comes to our mind. But the interesting thing is, they do not cause any harm to humans or domestic animals. They do not have any stings or teeth to bite. So it can be said that they are not malicious.

​It was quite challenging to capture the details of such a small insect on camera, but I tried to highlight its true beauty. Do let me know in the comments how you liked the pictures of this useful friend, smaller than a grain of wheat.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	MIX
Photography	(Brachymeria podagrica)
Photographer	@mshbd
Location	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh

Link to original community
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/365077627

Latitude	Longitude	Map Link
24.3360	89.1134	https://www.openstreetmap.org/?#map=12/24.3360/89.1134