Worst nightmare

[Martin Brazil]

An old picture taken with my point and shoot camera so the quality is not all that good but I wanted to share it just for interest.
It shows a Braconid Wasp parasitation of a caterpillar. The wasp stings a caterpillar which paralysis it for a while, lays its eggs under the skin and goes on its way. The unfortunate caterpillar wakes up and carries on about its business while the larvae of the wasp develop inside it. At some point the larvae all burrow out through the caterpillar's skin, weave a silk raft and pupate, which is what I caught in this picture. What a nightmare !

[Pink Dragonfly]

Huh yeah That sounds/looks like an invertebrate version of "Alien"!

Mette

[A.M.D.A.]

Nice, interesting catch & thanks for sharing!

However, poor caterpillar... :sad:

[SmartWombat]

If they weren't eaten, we'd be knee deep in them...

[Martin Brazil]

That's very true Paul the circle goes around and around. I'm just glad there are no big wasps that do that to people.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Hey, I'm off to bed soon...don't give me nightmares

Mette

[slayer7124]

Wow, haha, thats a crazy find, good job!

[paulnj]

If a wasp in discovered that does that to humans......... hahahah

Awesome image of the circle of life.

[AgingEyes]

Holly smoke, that's definitely nightmare stuff !