Aphid Meets Praon Wasp on Orchid Stem
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
I recently found some green aphids on the shoot, emerging from the compost, of a terrestrial orchid. I treated them with insecticide. Some days later, I saw another aphid on the stem. I was about to squash this last one when I realised that it was not entirely alone. Furthermore, it was dead, an empty skin.
Under the ventral side of the aphid skin was the miniature volcano-like cocoon of a Praon wasp larva. The wasp lays its egg in the aphid. The larva then eats the insides of the aphid, finally spinning a cocoon under the empty shell and pupates there.
In this case the cocoon was not transparent and the silk threads had darkened.
In November 2013 I posted images (taken in 2011) from a more recently-formed cocoon, in which the parasite larva was still visible.
The last image here is a (2013, partly reworked) stacked set of a freshly-formed cocoon, the larva of the wasp visible inside.
The 2013 post in full:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1253543/
The 2013 images were shot with: Olympus E-P2, Olympus Zuiko 38mm auto bellows lens, on 35mm of telescopic tube extension plus 10mm of adapter, tripod, anti-shock 8 seconds, 1/13 f8 ISO 400.
The new images were shot through my reversed Schneider HM 40 setup, using TTL flash, hand-held.
Images have been cropped by about a third.
Harold
Under the ventral side of the aphid skin was the miniature volcano-like cocoon of a Praon wasp larva. The wasp lays its egg in the aphid. The larva then eats the insides of the aphid, finally spinning a cocoon under the empty shell and pupates there.
In this case the cocoon was not transparent and the silk threads had darkened.
In November 2013 I posted images (taken in 2011) from a more recently-formed cocoon, in which the parasite larva was still visible.
The last image here is a (2013, partly reworked) stacked set of a freshly-formed cocoon, the larva of the wasp visible inside.
The 2013 post in full:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1253543/
The 2013 images were shot with: Olympus E-P2, Olympus Zuiko 38mm auto bellows lens, on 35mm of telescopic tube extension plus 10mm of adapter, tripod, anti-shock 8 seconds, 1/13 f8 ISO 400.
The new images were shot through my reversed Schneider HM 40 setup, using TTL flash, hand-held.
Images have been cropped by about a third.
Harold
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Comments
Brian v.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Thanks, Brian.
I'm surprised at how rarely I see Praon cocoons. We have plenty of "mummies" of Aphidius, even on an aubergine plant.
Harold