Stats:
Encounters this year:

• Eggs (6)
• Larvae (17)
• Pupa (3)
  •  live (0)
  •  dead/emerged (3)

Locations:

• Ohlone Greenway at Lincoln Ave., El Cerrito, CA (E4, L13, P4)     
• Westbrae Nursery, Berkeley, CA (E0, L4, P0)           
• Residential home, Albany, CA (E2, L0, P0)           

Months:​

• ​June (E2, L6, P3) 
  • ​first instars (1) 
  • fourth instars (3)
  • fifth instars (2)​
  • Adult - numerous; many times per week even occasionally in the city; often 3-4 around passionflower
• ​July (E4, L11, P1)
  • second instars (2)
  • third instars (3)
  • fourth instars (3)
  • ​fifth instars (3)
  • Adult - less common than before; possible once per week in the city; occasionally 1-2 around passionflower

Notable days for adults:
7/18: saw two flying in the city.
7/19: saw two flying in the city and at least five males patrolling passionflower at the Ohlone Greenway at Lincoln Ave. and vicinity

- Brian

Today, the 17 brachonid wasps that came out of our Gray Furcula Moth caterpillar (Furcula cinerea) have emerged.

The Gray Furcula Moth caterpillar (Furcula cinerea) that we caught on 6/19 and turned out to be parasitized on 7/3. 17 unidentified species of parasitoid brachinoid wasp maggots bit their way and crawled out of the caterpillar to spin cocoons. These cocoons finally emerged today, just about a week later as we had predicted (the weakened caterpillar is still alive after all this time!). We had kept them just for the sake of seeing what the adults would look like for future reference and for identification purposes (we still have not identified them yet though) and immediately after they emerged, we threw them in the freezer to kill them. Of course we took some nice pictures of them though.

- Brian

Today we found out that the Gray Furcula Moth caterpillar (Furcula cinerea) we found on 6/19 had been the host of some braconid wasp (Braconidae) maggots. What a lovely surprise. 

It has been 24 days since we first collected our first Gray Furcula Moth caterpillar on 6/19. When we first collected the little guy, it was only in second instar and in apolysis for third. For such a small caterpillar, we expected it to grow pretty fast. Though we had never had any experience with the species prior to finding it and did not know how many broods they have in our region, with the summer heat at 70+ degrees on most days we didn't expect it to take more than two weeks in the larval stage. But, of course we were wrong. 

By the 24th day, today, the little prominent still had only began feasting in the fourth instar for a few days. The caterpillar was very small, to say the least though we cannot say for sure that it was undersized. In any case, both slowed growth and being undersized are notorious symptoms of being parasitized.  And boy, was this caterpillar parasitized. This afternoon, we counted a total of 17 very fat braconid wasp larvae (family Braconidae) crawling out of its body and spinning their characteristic oval-shaped, white cocoons. Despite the warning signs, we simply had no idea. But then again, the parasitism rate can be alarmingly high among wild-caught caterpillars. 

After the maggots had chewed their way out of the exoskeleton to pupate, we didn't expect the poor prominent to have a trace of life left in it. But braconid wasps are actually quite different than tachinid flies (family Tachinidae) that we encounter more often. After they emerge from the host, the host is still very much alive (greatly weakened, but still alive) and brainwashed to defend the pupating maggots by thrashing around violently when disturbed. That's all our caterpillar is doomed to do for the rest of its short life before it finally does die when the wasps emerge from their cocoons about a week later. 

So that pretty much does it for Furcula cinerea -- our only caterpillar has been busted. Probably won't be seeing it around here too much anymore unless we decide to take a few pics of the wasps when they come out.

- Brian