[yarg]

This afternoon, I was greatly surprised to find that a recently formed chrysalis had a small hole in the side. The inside creature could be seen pulsating. A while later, my husband attempted to seal the hole with tissue paper adding flour and water as glaze. Since then, however, the pulsating seems to have stopped.

[Jacqui]

How did you get on, Yarg?

[Jacqui]

Hello Yarg

It sounds like it has been parasitised and that a wasp is feeding off the caterpillar inside. You should isolate that chrysalis and see what emerges – can you do that somehow? Put it into a jar with a net top on it? Or if you have one of our caterpillar castles that would be ideal.

Parasitic wasps lay their eggs into another insect, which then becomes food for the hatched wasp larvae. Some parasitic wasps have only one host, while others have a number of possible hosts. Parasitic wasps attack the host at a particular stage in its life cycle – for example Pteromalus puparum adults wait around a J-ing caterpillar (prepupa) and when it becomes a chrysalis – and before it gets hard – it pierces the outside and lays its eggs inside.

Some of these lay one egg while others lay lots of eggs. Some of these wasps are native to New Zealand. Others were accidentally introduced, or brought in deliberately to control pests like the cabbage white (as in the case of P. puparum.). Sadly it’s also decimating our native butterflies.

Ow! I’ve just been reading more about it here:

Pteromalus puparum

[yarg]

A check today has shown a second chrysalis appearing at risk of losing its integrity. It is of paler colour than usual and appears to be about to split down the front????

[yarg]

This afternoon, 24 hours later, I checked the chrysalis and was surprised to see that there was pulsation occurring from within once again. I don’t know if this means that it is still alive ????

[Author]

Replies