A luminous green caterpillar with a spiky tail horn is covered with the cocoons of parasitic wasps that have fed internally before emerging and spilling a cocoon attached to their host's back. Openings near the tops of the cocoons reveal that the adult wasps have emerged.
A luminous green caterpillar with a spiky tail horn is covered with the cocoons of parasitic wasps that have fed internally before emerging and spilling a cocoon attached to their host's back. Openings near the tops of some cocoons reveal that the adult wasps have emerged. The caterpillar is hanging from the leaf of a paw paw tree.
A brown inchworm caterpillar grips a leaf with its rear legs while a silken thread supports the head as it hangs upside-down. Half-a-dozen parasitic wasp cocoons dangle from the back of the caterpillar.
A crane fly with banded brown/tan banded legs and a yellow abdomen dangles from the leaf of a forest plant. Pseudoscorpions are attached near a joint on one meso- and one metathorasic leg. They use the fly to harmlessly carry them over the landscape (this phenomenon is called Phoresy).
Hanging around or hanging on! A nightwalk revealed #insects exploited by other #arthropods. Doomed big & little Paw Paw #sphinx #caterpillars parasitized by #braconid wasps, an #inchworm bearing more #wasp #cocoons, & a crane fly #Über allowing 2 #pseudoscorpions to hitch a ride (called #phoresy)
