posted this over at Scribbly as well…

I was wondering if you could help me identify these egg clusters I found on my broccoli. What piqued my curiosity was how a White Cabbage Butterfly caterpillar got himself caught in the silk webbing. Initially I thought maybe it was deliberately put there as food for emerging predator insects, yet the second cluster itself seemed to be hatching little grubs/caterpillars, so maybe they just White Cabbage Butterfly eggs and the presence of the larger grubs is incidental. The grub next to the second cluster does not seem to be caught. Both caterpillars are alive.

Goodness I have no idea….. amazing photos and clear too.

the eggs were probably impregnated by ichneumon wasp. the adult caterpillar should soon show exit holes for the baby wasps.

so the eggs would be from the White Cabbage Butterfly then, aquarium?

bluegreen said:

so the eggs would be from the White Cabbage Butterfly then, aquarium?

actually, these are WCB eggs, so it is still a mystery what mine are…

oops…wrong wasp…it’s the Apanteles Glomeratus…..the eggs pictured are laid near or on top of the caterpillar laid eggs. both the wasps and caterpillars hatch….and that’s where the caterpillars lives end.
search for that name in google images.

aquarium said:

oops…wrong wasp…it’s the Apanteles Glomeratus…..the eggs pictured are laid near or on top of the caterpillar laid eggs. both the wasps and caterpillars hatch….and that’s where the caterpillars lives end.
search for that name in google images.

excellent! I was hoping they were good guys! I know to leave them be now. Ain’t nature wonderful?

bluegreen said:

aquarium said:

oops…wrong wasp…it’s the Apanteles Glomeratus…..the eggs pictured are laid near or on top of the caterpillar laid eggs. both the wasps and caterpillars hatch….and that’s where the caterpillars lives end.
search for that name in google images.

excellent! I was hoping they were good guys! I know to leave them be now. Ain’t nature wonderful?

actually, they are the cocoons formed by the wasp larvae after gorging themselves on plump caterpillars. The two little grubs I saw that I thought were emerging from the “eggs” were probably spinning themselves cocoons.

see
http://www.pznow.co.uk/wildlife/insects.html