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Parasitic Wasp Larvae on Caterpillar

Hymenoptera sp

Description:

Very strange... Looks like larvae eating larvae?

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3 Comments

Christiane
Christiane 12 years ago

Thanks to Ken...
These are wasp larvae that are about to pupate on the outside of the caterpillar body. Parasitic wasps are endo-parasites - that is they feed on the inside of the caterpillar body but they emerge from the body to pupate on the outside. You can actually see some silk strands attaching the caterpillar to the leaf. The white to yellow wasp pupal cases enshroud the dead body of the caterpillar. Ken

Christiane
Christiane 12 years ago

Yes, that is how it looked. Do you know the wasps?

ceherzog
ceherzog 12 years ago

could it be a parasitized caterpillar? Sometimes wasps lay egg in lepidoptera larvae.

Christiane
Spotted by
Christiane

4671, Queensland, Australia

Spotted on May 16, 2011
Submitted on May 16, 2011

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