This week's image is a response to a question about a caterpillar with cocoons on its exterior. One such caterpillar was found by Zuzana Muranicova in the tomato plants in front of our home this summer. As her photograph illustrates, hundreds of tiny cocoons hang from the exterior of the caterpillar as parasitic wasps consume it. This type of external parasitization is common among the culprit, a microgastrine braconid wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonoidea: Braconidae:Microgastrinae). Species in the genus Cotesia belong to this group and have been used extensively as biological control agents against caterpillars. The wasp image is of a microgastrine wasp which I collected in front of my home later in the summer, maybe it is one of the hatchlings!!!
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