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Photo#519307
Case-bearing larvae

Case-bearing larvae
Jonesboro, Craighead County, Arkansas, USA
May 22, 2011
Size: 2mm
When we first saw these, we thought they were some kind of eggs. They appeared to be attached to the stem by silk. When we investigated the next day, we saw tiny larvae sticking out of the basket-like things. Hours later, we saw the larvae were reaching their heads down to the stem, and finally clinging to the stem and flipping over so that the basket-like things were above them, and then they tootled off and disappeared (probably dropping to the ground). We couldn't tell if they were moth or beetle larvae, but we suspect the latter. They were so small they strained our eyes and our photographic capabilities.

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Moved
Moved from ID Request.
Great find, and nice documentation of the way the newly hatched larvae adopt their egg cases (made of their mother's excrement) as portable houses. They will add their own excrement onto the cases as they grow.

Something in Clytrini, perhaps?


Let's see what the experts have to say.

 
Fantastic
thanks very much.

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