Rudy Mancke discusses how certain parasitic wasps use caterpillars to host their eggs.
Transcript (edited for clarity):
RUDY MANCKE:
Hi, this is Rudy Mancke from USC for NatureNotes.
Victoria was at Jones Gap State Park near Marietta, SC — you know, the Saluda River, one part of it runs through there — with her granddaughters. And on the side of a small boulder, they noticed something that really was sort of different than the boulder underneath it. When they look closely, it looked like a caterpillar. And from what I saw in the, in the photo, I think it was probably one of the tussock moth caterpillars.
But there were projections off the caterpillar's body that made it look pretty weird. Those were wasp pupil cases. There was a parasite inside. Braconid wasps do that: feed on non-essentials, then chew your way out, kill your host, and then become wasps.
Strange world.
