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Post by madh4tt3r on Mar 30, 2021 5:01:55 GMT -8
I found a caterpillar in the garden today that was dead and stuffed full of some sort of eggs, at first I thought it might be because of a parasitic wasp but those leave the caterpillars alive so I'm at a bit of a dead end. Does anyone else know what it could be??
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Post by Adam Cotton on Mar 30, 2021 5:15:26 GMT -8
It certainly could be parasitic wasp pupae (not eggs). While some species emerge from the parasitised larva and pupate outside the dying larva others normally pupate inside the host after it has pupated. I have not heard of any species that pupate inside the host larva before it pupates, but I imagine that there could well be species that do.
Adam.
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Post by bichos on Mar 30, 2021 5:47:48 GMT -8
I found a caterpillar in the garden today that was dead and stuffed full of some sort of eggs, at first I thought it might be because of a parasitic wasp but those leave the caterpillars alive so I'm at a bit of a dead end. Does anyone else know what it could be?? Was it a green caterpillar with a dozen or more wolly eggtype cocoons? |
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Post by madh4tt3r on Mar 30, 2021 9:49:14 GMT -8
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Post by bandrow on Mar 30, 2021 17:03:58 GMT -8
Greetings,
Have you saved the specimen? Keeping it in a container with a fine screen - or better yet, thin material, over the top - will allow you to see what emerges. They'll be very small, so the finer the mesh, the better. Best not to place a solid lid on the container, as the specimen will likely rot and mold.
Once the parasites emerge, placing some of them in a vial of ethanol along with the host larva will document the parasite-host relationship. These can be valuable specimens to link the two species' biologies...
Cheers!
Bandrow
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Post by madh4tt3r on Mar 31, 2021 22:28:14 GMT -8
Okay, thank you for the suggestion.
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Post by kevinkk on Apr 1, 2021 6:36:45 GMT -8
So, those wasps that hatched from my katydid eggs might have interested someone..
I'll keep that in mind the next time.
All they did for me was disappoint.
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