And then in full glorious colour:
Notice that the larvae are not exhibiting their normal defensive reflex. I think this is how the Mesochorus females detect the presence of the egg of the Campodorus.So we have a timing of 2 days from primary parasitisation to secondary parasitisation. It is clear that the secondary parasite is targetting the egg of the primary parasite. This actually makes more sense. (See the full discussion on http://homepage.eircom.net/~hedgerow26/nematus-pavidus-parasitoids.htm)
As an aside, the primary parasite was still lurking: there are other batches waiting for her attention:
1 comment:
Fascinating. I wonder if the doubly-parasitised larvae behave any differently from those only clobbered once? We know they behave differently from those unmolested. Are you rearing known injected ones?
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