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Euplectrus
Photo#198370
Copyright © 2008
Charley Eiseman
Blue larvae on caterpillar -
Euplectrus
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
July 6, 2008
Size: 18 mm
Found on the underside of a boxelder leaf.
Images of this individual:
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Contributed by
Charley Eiseman
on 6 July, 2008 - 10:15pm
Last updated 7 July, 2008 - 11:42am
Expert opinion
Christer Hansson agrees that these are
Euplectrus
.
…
Charley Eiseman
, 5 December, 2012 - 10:30am
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Moved
Moved from
Eulophidae
.
…
john and jane balaban
, 7 July, 2008 - 11:42am
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Moved
Moved from
Caterpillars with larvae
.
…
john and jane balaban
, 7 July, 2008 - 10:19am
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are you
going to try to raise them?
…
Bobby Grizzard
, 7 July, 2008 - 1:44am
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Unfortunately
I didn't collect them. I'm tempted to go back and see if they're still there, but I'm on the road and it's a bit difficult to raise things.
…
Charley Eiseman
, 7 July, 2008 - 9:48am
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Nice find!
Some similar images in the guide
here
…
john and jane balaban
, 6 July, 2008 - 10:50pm
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Thanks!
I figured I wasn't the first. It appears that Jeff's
turned out to be Eulophids, yet his larvae and others like them are filed under Braconidae. I guess these should all be moved? Or could they possibly be hyperparasites? It's interesting that his formed cocoons under the caterpillar, similar to the ones that are usually assumed to be braconids. I guess I'd better see if they're still there, while I'm still in Nashville...
…
Charley Eiseman
, 7 July, 2008 - 9:55am
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It doesn't seem reasonable that the
Eulophids could have hyperparasitized all the "braconid" larvae, so we will assume these are actually Eulophid larvae and move them all there. It's easy enough to change if we're wrong.
Here's a quote from the USDA link on the Info page:
"Euplectrus (Euplectrini: Eulolphinae): The species in this genus are gregarious external parasites of lepidopterous larvae. It is particularly interesting in 2 ways: first, the larvae feed on the dorsum of their host which is often still moving freely about (thus, if you see a free-living caterpillar with larvae on its back, the larvae are almost certainly Euplectrus); secondly, the larvae move below the emaciated host to pupate, spinning silk from the Malphigian tubes to hold the host down as well as to separate themselves from each other. According to Askew (1971) some other chalcidoids spin cocoons (e.g. some Coccophagus-Aphelinidae, Systasis-Pteromalidae, some Encyrtidae), but it is uncommon. "
Any thoughts on whether we should move them all to Euplectrus?
…
john and jane balaban
, 7 July, 2008 - 10:17am
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well
Dr. Hook at St. Edward's University (he specializes in wasps, but not this kind), who ID'ed my image (linked in my other comment) said that he thought Euplectrus was definitely the most likely (for mine anyway, which we went ahead and put in the genus page), and your USDA reference is definitely more evidence ("almost certainly"). It seems like a good bet to me, and we could always move them again if an expert corrected us.
…
Bobby Grizzard
, 7 July, 2008 - 11:38am
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From what I know,
I agree that these are probably Eulophidae. This one of mine
has the same shape but obviously a different color.
…
Bobby Grizzard
, 7 July, 2008 - 10:02am
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Okay...
...and I just did a quick Google search for "eulophid larvae" and came up with
this page
, which has a similar ball of eulophid larvae towards the bottom of the page. I've never heard of braconids being in a ball like this; they always seem to be scattered all over the caterpillar when they emerge. So I think I'll go ahead and move mine and similar images to Eulophidae. [Edit: I see the Balabans are taking care of it. Thanks!]
…
Charley Eiseman
, 7 July, 2008 - 10:20am
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