Braconid Parasitized Caterpillars from Australia

danielj

March 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am

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Hairy caterpillar waiting to be eaten by hatching ?wasps
Dear Daniel,
On several gum trees in our yard there are these batches of white eggs, each batch bearing a paralysed hairy caterpillar. I don’t know what the insects in the eggs are, but am assuming some type of wasp will hatch out. In the first photo there are two batches of eggs, with a crane fly that just happened to be resting there. Kind regards,
Grev

cats brachonids grev Braconid Parasitized Caterpillars from Australia

Hi Grev,
It is nice to get an image from one of our most consistant identifiers of Australian mysteries. You are correct about the wasps, but some of the details are wrong. These are pupae of Braconid Wasps, not eggs. The eggs were oviposited inside the caterpillar, and the larval wasps fed on the internal organs, sparing the vital organs for last to keep the caterpillar alive as long as possible. Then the pupae form on the outside. There is no paralysis with Braconids. The caterpillars are dead.