Sphingid moth caterpillar covered with braconid wasp cocoons. Click image to magnify.
One of my students found two of these caterpillars dining on their neighbor’s tomato plants.
The female braconid wasp lays its eggs within the caterpillar.
The wasp larvae feed on the caterpillar’s body until they chew their way to the surface and spin the white cocoons.
The majority of the wasps already emerged, though a few emerged while we had the caterpillar. More about the wasps later…
