Red wasp attacking black swallowtail caterpillar? - Trogus vulpinus

Moved

… Jonathan Hoskins, 24 June, 2021 - 4:25am

Splendid!

I suspect that the caterpillar's defensive reaction may have been too late. As for the pennator female sitting on the Queen Anne's lace, the late Ichneumoninae specialist, Gerd Heinrich (father of Bernd), used to collect Ichneumoninae on certain umbellifers, but he said that the best ones were the species found in the woods and that Queen Anne's lace wasn't very attractive for ichneumonids. However, in Europe, where Queen Anne's lace is native, ichneumonids apparently are common visitors to the flowers of the species.

Moved from ID Request.

… Bob Carlson, 24 July, 2010 - 9:56am

Oh, wow!

This is actually a parasitic ichneumon, Trogus that is laying an egg in the caterpillar. The larva that hatches consumes the caterpillar from the inside out but still allows the caterpillar to pupate. An adult ichneumon will then emerge from the chrysalis. Great captures!

… Eric R. Eaton, 23 July, 2010 - 12:46pm

Thanks!

I suspected this might be some kind of cool parasite--I'm a bug dummy, but the way it crept up behind the caterpillar, rode it to the ground when it fell of the plant, then immediately left it to go sit on some queen anne's lace seemed pretty odd.

… Greg Austin, 23 July, 2010 - 12:53pm

Another awful (this lens is hilariously soft) image of the bug

… Greg Austin, 23 July, 2010 - 12:58pm