209 (see text for notable examples)[1] Copidosoma is a genus of chalcid wasps, which are parasitoids of Lepidoptera.
Copidosoma has over 200 species, according to the Natural History Museum of London's Universal Chalcidoidea Database.
[4] In a study on C. floridanum 24% of the members in the polymorula, of either sex, develop in to soldiers and when the host is killed in its final instar these soldiers die too while their siblings consume the host and pupate to emerge as adults around two weeks later.
It appears that the early emerging female soldiers purpose is inter-specific competition, they ensure that the first female brood has the host to themselves by killing other non related and females and related and younger males, while the later soldiers are produced to defend the host from intra-specific competitors and are produced by both sexes, although male soldiers of C. floridanum lack aggression and their production may be a trait which is being selected against.
For example the wasps of the species group named after Copidosoma cervius are all parasitoids of moths in the family Geometridae while those in the nacoliae species group attack caterpillars of the families Pyralidae and Tortricidae.