Tobacco Sphinx Caterpillar parasitized by Braconid Wasp

Yeah,definitely my amigos!!!If I found one with the eggs on it I would leave it,guess I don't let 'em live long enough to get laid!!

snuffy

They have ultimate camo radio. we should grill some up...

snuffy, that thing can dismantle and devour half a plant overnight.

We grow Catawba trees to get caterpillars like that so we can fish with them.
The caterpillars feed on the large leaves.

Good ole' southern girls are tolerant of frozen Catawba worms in her freezer to keep her man fishing and out of trouble.
Gotta freeze em while the gettin is good !!

This plant looks like a sedum due to it's succulent stems.
Bracanid Wasps are swarming it. not sure what it is.
They are also swarming yellow objects.



A bit hard to read, but this critter is diabolical:

Most braconids are internal and external primary parasitoids on other insects, especially upon the larval stages of Coleoptera, Diptera, and Lepidoptera, but also some hemimetabolous insects such as aphids, Heteroptera, or Embiidina. Most species kill their hosts, though some cause the hosts to become sterile and less active. Endoparasitoid species often display elaborate physiological adaptations to enhance larval survival within the host, such as the co-option of endosymbiotic viruses for compromising host immune defenses. These polydnaviruses are often used by the wasps instead of a venom cocktail. The DNA of the wasp actually contains portions that are the templates for the components of the viral particles and they are assembled in an organ in the female's abdomen known as the calyx.[3] A 2009 study has traced the origins of these templates to a 100-million-year-old viral infection whose alterations to its host DNA provided the necessary basis for these virus-like "templates".[4]

These viruses suppress the immune system and allow the parasitoid to grow inside the host undetected. The exact function and evolutionary history of these viruses are unknown. Sequences of polydnavirus genes show the possibility that venom-like proteins are expressed inside the host caterpillar. Through the evolutionary history of being used by the wasps, these viruses apparently have become so modified, they appear unlike any other known viruses today. Because of this highly modified system of host immunosuppression, a high level of parasitoid-host specificity is not surprising.

Parasitism on adult insects (particularly on Hemiptera and Coleoptera) is also observed. Members of two subfamilies (Mesostoinae and Doryctinae) are known to form galls on plants.

Haven't had any of those yet this year. They just all be at James and snuffy's places!

Sci Fi is right. Lots of parallels between the Aliens in the Alien movies and wasps. Sting 'em, paralyze and preserve them, lay the eggs, larvae eat the innards and out pops the chest busters. Wasps are actually more complex and nasty than the aliens. We should all be thankful bugs like wasps ain't big.....Mel

I don't know if the rest of the country has Yellow Jackets, and hope you don't.
They swarm attack when their ground nest is disturbed, like mowing over the nest.
Not unusual to be stung 50-100 times before you have a chance to get them off or get away.
Often having to peel clothes off and rolling them up in your clothing.
Ground exit hole looking like a geyser of bees flowing upward.
Deadly to those allergic, and able to deliver multiple stings per bee.
Keep a bottle of fast release Benadryl close by and cross your fingers.

Yellow jacket stings are not as painful as those red wasps. And the red wasps swarm quick too.
You expect them in a building, the Yellow Jackets are always a surprise.
Those wasp stings feel like a deep bruise afterwards. I fear them for the shear pain they deliver.

I prefer the tractor to the horse, the horse may freak out and cause havoc. But a fast escape would be nice.
Maybe horses do not get bothered by their stings.

Welcome to the forum knifegirl. did you know that Yellow Jackets are possessive of pretty rocks ??