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Telenomus sp. on Green Lacewing Egg

Started 5 months ago | Discussions
Victor Engel Forum Pro • Posts: 20,968
Telenomus sp. on Green Lacewing Egg
6

I caught this picture of a tiny wasp (0.7mm length) laying an egg in a green lacewing egg. These green lacewings lay eggs in two parallel rows of eggs placed on the top of a thread. Lens was set at 5x

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Victor Engel

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macrouser
macrouser Senior Member • Posts: 3,979
Re: Telenomus sp. on Green Lacewing Egg

I should have known that green lacewing eggs would have parasites.  It was still a surprise.

I know how small those eggs are.  I was very pleased to photograph the hatching.

It is really great that you got a chance to see the wasp.  They tend not to hang around for long.  The size is extremely small.

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richj20 Forum Pro • Posts: 10,181
Re: Telenomus sp. on Green Lacewing Egg

Beautiful composition.

It's always interesting to see something like this in nature.

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Mikel10
Mikel10 Forum Pro • Posts: 11,293
Re: Telenomus sp. on Green Lacewing Egg

Very interesting. Never saw this before. Thanks for sharing Victor.

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Best,
Mike

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OP Victor Engel Forum Pro • Posts: 20,968
Re: Telenomus sp. on Green Lacewing Egg

Mikel10 wrote:

Very interesting. Never saw this before. Thanks for sharing Victor.

Also interesting - I collected the eggs, scraping them off the glass with a razor blade. My purpose was to collect more of the wasps for more detailed closeups. Some of the wasps hatched, but I didn't collect them before the lacewing larvae that were not infected hatched.
These lacewings as larvae collect debris and place it among curved hairs on their backs. By the time I noticed the larvae had hatched, they had cleaned up the place, placing all the wasps, who were by the point dead, on their backs among egg shells and egg stalks.

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Victor Engel

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