This pupating green looper caterpillar (Chrysodeixis eriosoma) is bulging with parasitic Copidosoma wasp larvae that hatched from a single egg laid in the egg of the host. By now the larvae have consumed the caterpillar’s internal organs, leaving only the outer skin.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Natural Sciences Image Library of New Zealand
Reference:
Bc0030smt.tif
Photograph by Peter E. Smith
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