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Photo#1291172
Schizura unicornis with parasites- 2 different wasp species? - Coelodasys unicornis

Schizura unicornis with parasites- 2 different wasp species? - Coelodasys unicornis
Garner, Wake County, North Carolina, USA
September 12, 2016
Size: 3/8 inch-shrunken
This poor Schizura unicornis caterpillar is being consumed by the pink larvae, hatched from the green eggs, and is now also resting atop a silken nest full of new white eggs. What will happen when these eggs hatch? Are these all parasitic wasps?

Images of this individual: tag all
Schizura unicornis? or other caterpillar? - Coelodasys unicornis Schizura unicornis? or other caterpillar? - Coelodasys unicornis Schizura unicornis? or other caterpillar? - Coelodasys unicornis Schizura unicornis with parasites- 2 different wasp species? - Coelodasys unicornis Schizura unicornis with parasites- 2 different wasp species? - Coelodasys unicornis Schizura unicornis with parasites- 2 different wasp species? - Coelodasys unicornis

Parasites…
It's quite possible that this caterpillar has been parasitized by both braconid and chalcid wasps. If you could place the leaf in a container with the caterpillar, it would be quite interesting to see what survives and develops to adults.

The cocoons under the body are likely those of Microgastrinae, and the free-roaming larvae may be those of Eulophus or Euplectrus.

 
Parasites
Thank you Ross. I have put the leaf in a small herb jar with a bit of water at the stem and a bit of paper towel for a lid. Will this be good? (I don't want to drown them, but thought keeping the leaf green might be good.)
How long will the wasps need to pupate?

 
Development cycles…
It is not necessary to keep the leaf "wet", as the wasp larvae won't care. The pupal development time for the braconid wasps will be about 1-2 weeks.

Assuming that the chalcid larvae survive, the length of time may be somewhat longer since they are still feeding on the host, and have yet to pupate. The development times are also influenced by external factors such as air temperature (i.e warmer temps may accelerate development).

When the chalcid larvae have finished feeding, they may try to spin cocoons under the host (which is now blocked by the braconid cocoons), or they may crawl some distance away from the host to pupate. Time will tell.

 
Development cycles
Thanks again.
I'll take the water out, find a larger jar (easier to see inside) and see what happens. I have them indoors where the temps are around 78 degrees F.
I'll release them if they survive... my apple tree will be happy about that!

 
Images…
If you can get images of any adults that emerge, that would be great. The adults will be very small, probably less than 5mm in length, but there may be lots of them. If they have long antennae, they will be braconids, short antennae will indicate chalcids. Thanks for your efforts.

 
Images
Okay. I will try. I only have a point and shoot Canon power shot sx210. I have trouble capturing very small insects. But I will try. Thank you for helping me understand what these small beasts are doing here!

 
No worries...
Your camera has a 14x optical zoom, which will allow for nice close-up shots of small insects. To compare, my camera has only a 10x zoom capability, but still is able to take focused images of insects as small as 1.5mm in length.

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