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Photo#804907
Acrocera sp. (pupa) - Acrocera - male

Acrocera sp. (pupa) - Acrocera - Male
Mont St-Bruno, Montérégie County, Quebec, Canada
July 12, 2013
Size: 2.9 mm
The pupa of the Acrocera.

Images of this individual: tag all
Acrocera sp. - Acrocera - male Acrocera sp. (side view) - Acrocera - male Acrocera sp. (larva) - Acrocera - male Acrocera sp. (pupa) - Acrocera - male

Interesting...am I interpreting this image correctly?
I'm thinking the large yellow ovoid shape (attached to the remnant of the host spider at upper left) is the pupal case of the Acrocera. Is the black "abdomen-looking" object, protruding out of the yellow casing (at bottom right), the emerging Acrocera?

I'm puzzled because the black color of the protruding part looks very different from the red seen on the abdomen in the 1st & 2nd images of the series. (Perhaps the abdomen cured to the mostly red color in the time between the photos? Or perhaps I've got everything wrong :-)

Also of interest is the tiny orange insect just above-left from the protruding black "abdomen". I'm curious as to what that might be, and its relationship to the emerging entity and the spider?

 
Actually, the black abdomen i
Actually, the black abdomen is a remnant of the spider's last dinner. As for the tiny orange insect, it's a Thysanoptera that get caught in the spider web after the pupa emerge from the spider.

 
Many thanks, P-M
That clarifies things substantially for me!

I can now see the flared circular opening where the teneral Acrocera exited...and that it's actually in front of the black abdomen of the remains of spider prey.

And I thought that tiny guy might be a thrips...but I didn't realized it was caught and immobilized upside-down in the spider's web, until reading your comment.

Grateful for your feedback...I was puzzled & confused prior to it.

PS: I've never seen a pupa with such a tapered "handle" and globular "body". Looks like a foreshortened maraca!! :-)

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