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Are these eggs? What laid them?

michellekw_79michellekw_79 Posts: 10
edited June 2018 in Wildlife gardening
Does anyone know what these yellow egg things are? This little fella hung around them for a good few weeks untill this morning when I found it on the ground? Any ideas why?


Posts

  • MuddyForkMuddyFork North HampshirePosts: 435
    What plant did you see them on as the food source could give us a clue.  Too big for ladybird eggs.
  • michellekw_79michellekw_79 Posts: 10
    They just apeared on my backdoor! Which I thought was very odd!
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Derbyshire but with a Nottinghamshire postcode. Posts: 16,470
    Stuck to a door with silk like that, I would say a spider.
  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 1,983
    The white things look like the pupae of a parasitic wasp. The wasp laid its its eggs inside the caterpillar and the larvae have been living inside it and feeding on it, before eating their way out to pupate. 
  • wild edgeswild edges The north west of south east WalesPosts: 8,876
    What Alan said.

    It's a large white butterfly caterpillar and the wasps below are a main parasite for them.

    Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Derbyshire but with a Nottinghamshire postcode. Posts: 16,470
    Having read that link, it sounds like something out of Alien.  10 days and they should hatch into new wasps. It would be interesting if you could photograph that.
  • Villaverde123Villaverde123 Posts: 196
    Made me shiver!  whatever they are...

  • michellekw_79michellekw_79 Posts: 10
    Thank you Alan. I did see what I thought were little black flies near the eggs but now I know it was the hatched wasps! Poor caterpillar 😏
  • FireFire North LondonPosts: 17,116
    I remember Terry Pratchett commenting that people who get all mushy about the beautiful, caring and uplifting nature of nature, should meditate on the life cycle of the parasitic wasp.
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