On April 29th last I found this seven spot lady bird on a fence post ,it wasn"t moving and had a small brown cylinderical object under it in a cocoon of some kind.It was the pupa of a ladybird killing wasp.
Dinocampus coccinellae
The braconid wasp D. coccinellae injects its egg into adults of large
ladybirds, especially the 7-spot. The eggs hatch into larvae which grow within
the ladybird but do not kill it. They emerge and build a cocoon below
the ladybird, attaching it to a leaf or trees trunk.They sever the nerve endings
to the ladybirds legs and it starves to death, The larvae pupate here
before emerging as full grown wasps. The living-dead ladybird may act as a
defence form other predators.
2010 was a very good year for ladybirds, numbers were up particularly in August September .2011 will probably have a big wasp surge s a result. |
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