Two days ago, as I came back into the house after dumping my coffee grounds in the garden, I noticed a small black and white wasp sitting on top of something on the swamp milkweed. Looking closer, I saw what I thought was a discolored monarch caterpillar, about the size of a 2nd or 3rd instar. "Damn. Oh, well, her babies have to eat, too," I thought to myself.
Of course I grabbed my camera to capture some photos, but it was early morning and the humidity was high, so I was only able to take a couple frames before the lens fogged up and became too opaque for me to continue. By the time the lens cleared, the wasp with her payload had disappeared.
Well, my garden is definitely a place for nature to "do its thing", so I made no attempt to intervene. In the late afternoon, I noticed what looked like the same female wasp working at the entrance to a hollow tube in my bee house which is above and behind the swamp milkweed. Obviously that was where her nest was.
When I downloaded my photos, I was relieved to see that the caterpillar the little wasp had was NOT a monarch caterpillar. If I had to guess, I'd say it was a cutworm of some sort, actually. Much as I love insects, that's not a caterpillar I'm sorry to see feed some baby wasps.
Yesterday, when I went back out to take photos, the nest tube this little wasp was working on had been completely closed off. It's the right hand tube near the center of this photo. Inside it, I am sure that a wasp egg is developing into a larva that will use this hapless caterpillar to create the next generation of mason wasps. As horrific as that seems in one sense, at the same time it seems pretty amazing.
I see these little wasps hunting in my gardens frequently. It would be fascinating to know how many caterpillars they remove over the course of each growing season - and what species get "harvested".
In other caterpillar news, I was thrilled a few days ago to notice a monarch cat hanging upside down in the classic "J" position as it started the transition from caterpillar to pupa/chrysalis. Because we've been watching Youtube videos about metamorphosis, I carefully pointed it out to our oldest grandson, Connor, who is 3.
We were both ecstatic to see that the caterpillar had completed its change the next morning...
...but by the following day, I began to suspect that something was seriously wrong.
Two days after it had formed, I removed the remnants of the chrysalis, as well as the leaf it was attached to, fearing for bacterial contamination. It was probably too little, too late, but I figured it was worth a try to keep further contamination from spreading to other monarch caterpillars in the area.
Does anyone with more specialized knowledge of monarch/butterfly metamorphosis know more precisely what caused the demise of this pupating monarch?
Once again, as with bird nests, if I find it, I'm beginning to assume that the chrysalis/pupa is not likely to have a positive outcome. Sometimes I have to be content with letting exciting events happen "off stage" in the garden. If the result is more baby birds and more adult butterflies, then it's all good and my curiosity will just have to go unsatisfied. Thank goodness for Youtube videos!
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