Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . r to havebeen the most abundant parasites of these insects. An^^^ is laid on the skin of the caterpillar by a two-wingedfly, similar in general appearance to Figure 85. Thecontents of this ^^^ shortly develop into a tiny grubthat burrows through the egg-shell and the skin of thecaterpillar into the inside of the body. Here it remainsabsorbing the body substance of its host and graduallyincreasing in size. In a few weeks it becomes fullydeveloped in this grub state. By this time the caterpillarhas becom
Nature biographies; the lives of some every-day butterflies; moths; grasshoppers and flies . r to havebeen the most abundant parasites of these insects. An^^^ is laid on the skin of the caterpillar by a two-wingedfly, similar in general appearance to Figure 85. Thecontents of this ^^^ shortly develop into a tiny grubthat burrows through the egg-shell and the skin of thecaterpillar into the inside of the body. Here it remainsabsorbing the body substance of its host and graduallyincreasing in size. In a few weeks it becomes fullydeveloped in this grub state. By this time the caterpillarhas become sluggish from the effects of the the branch upon which it feeds is disturbed, the othercaterpillars are likely to crawl away, but it remains inits place. The caterpillars illustrated on the web inFigure 84 were parasitized specimens that thus re-mained after the others had crawled away. Shortly after becoming full grown, the Tachinid grubbreaks through the skin of the dying caterpillar and, fall-ing to the ground, changes to a peculiar pupa; the outer 85 Nature undero^oeschange skin of the grub turns brown and becomes hard, form-ing a protective covering for the body inside. A week or two later the insectanotherand emergesas a two-winged Ta-chinid fly, hke the onethat laid the egg someweeks before. Besides those insectsthat develop on theinside of the bodies ofthese Antiopa cater-pillars, called parasites,there are other insectenemies which attackthem from the outsideand devour them bodi-ly. The most notableof these, perhaps, is alarge beetle commonlycalled the CaterpillarHunter; it is knownto entomologists as Calosoma scrutator. This is a veryactive insect, with large strong jaws,that runs rapidly about in search ofvictims. In some cases it has beenobserved while destroying many of theAntiopa larvae. In the Southern states a commonreddish wasp — a species of Polistes —has been also observed attacking these caterpillars, andthere are probably var
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1901
