Hello steemit friends,
Today, I was walking through a small section of forest and happened upon a neat looking caterpillar sitting on the leaves of a low-hanging tree. Naturally, I figured that I would take a picture. After doing a bit of research, I discovered that this was a Laurel Sphinx moth caterpillar, known for the characteristic yellow and black stripes running down its sides.
Upon finishing up my walk, I returned in hopes of taking another photo with my new caterpillar friend. What I found however, was something very strange. As I learned later, this caterpillar had been infected by a wasp of some sort and larval wasps were burrowing out of the caterpillars skin, as a form of parasitism. Pretty gross if you ask me, but very neat indeed! What I've documented below is the progression of the larval wasp infection. Has anyone else ever seen something like this happen before?
Thanks for taking the time to look at my post!
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