Ward's® Live Nasonia vitripennis Cultures

Supplier: VWR
WARD470184-766 WARD470180-474 WARD470184-772 WARD470184-770 WARD470184-774 WARD470180-476 WARD470180-480 WARD470180-478 WARD470184-768
470184-766EA 45.8 CAD
470184-766 470180-474 470180-476 470180-478 470184-768 470184-770 470180-480 470184-774 470184-772
Ward's® Live Nasonia vitripennis Cultures
Specimens Live Specimens Animals - Living Material
This harmless insect parasitizes the Sarcophaga (flesh fly) pupae. Females usually lay 30–50 eggs in the pupae, which provide food for the Nasonia larvae when they hatch.

  • This harmless wasp develops inside the pupa of the Sarcophaga fly
  • Pupae are easily sexable, making picking virgins for crosses extremely easy
  • Refrigerate to halt development at any point
  • Observe mutants without a dissecting scope

Adults will emerge in approximately fourteen days. Nasonia are also easy to handle in the lab because they don’t sting or bite, and they are not prone to flying away without warning.

Commonly called the jewel wasp,Nasonia are better and more interesting study subjects for several reasons. Mutants are observable without dissecting scopes. They are easily sexed in either the pupal (thus ensuring virgin females) or adult stage. They tend not to fly like Drosophila. You can arrest their life cycle using refrigeration to work around your class schedule. Haploid males make all crosses appear sex-linked. They exhibit ritualistic courtship and mating behaviors. They have a parasitic life cycle. They are easy to culture and maintain.
You can use Nasonia to teach topics covering scientific method and techniques, genetics, behavior, selective advantage and biotechnology. You can study the world of Nasonia through the Nasonia Project, a comprehensive set of inquiry-based lab activities available only from WARD’S.

Ordering information: Each culture, supplied in the pupal stage in infected Sarcophaga hosts. Please specify a delivery date during checkout.

Delivery information: These products contain living or perishable materials and will ship via overnight or 2nd day delivery.

Packaging: A large, vigorous culture is shipped in a shatterproof plastic vial.
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