Parasites?.

roundwood123 · Post by **roundwood123** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 8:00 pm

Hi all, I have found a number of Pupa that have lots of these tiny flies wandering over them, could someone tell me what's going on.
Sorry about the picture quality, the pupa was not very accessible.

Post by **Vince Massimo** » Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:34 pm

Hi Steve,

That's an interesting image. It looks like a Small Tortoiseshell pupa from which tiny parasitic wasps are emerging. The most likely candidate in this case being one of the Pteromalus wasps, which prey on a number of different hosts (and that's as much as I know about them

). There is a very good image in the Small Tortoiseshell species page from UKB member Mikhail which shows one of the ways the larva and/or pupa is attacked.
gallery/images/upload/c3ee6e61cea856f61 ... 6742ee.jpg
Also one from Richard Roebuck of a Comma larva in the same situation
gallery/images/upload/547f96a2d96d5d82c ... f39aa3.jpg

If you are agreeable, I would like to add yours to that page to show the result of such an attack.

Regards,

Vince

roundwood123 · Post by **roundwood123** » Tue Aug 20, 2013 5:40 pm

Hi Vince, thank you for your reply, feel free to use the image, I removed the pupa today and took a photo of two exit holes the Parasites had used.
I reckon studying the life cycles of Parasites would be fascinating, not something for me though.

roundwood123 · Post by **roundwood123** » Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:07 pm

Hi all, I thought I would have a go at "rearing" some of these Parasites, here is the result.
Steve.

Parasites?.

Parasites?.

Re: Parasites?.

Re: Parasites?.

Re: Parasites?.