Those white things are wasp larvae eating this manduca caterpillar from the inside out.
Parasitic wasps lay their eggs in it. The eggs are coated with a virus that temporarily turns off the manduca's immune system. When it's immune system reboots, it is tricked into thinking that the eggs are part of the caterpillar. The eggs hatch, and they eat their way out and turn into pupae and the cycle repeats.
22 Comments
MutantTailThing@lemmy.world · 60 pts · 22d
AAAAAAAHHHHhHHHHhhHhHhHh.
That is all.
_thebrain_@sh.itjust.works · 49 pts · 22d
Anyone who has grown tomatoes before really appreciates the wasps. The hornworm caterpillar can devastate your tomatoes crop. It's probably a terrible way to go for the caterpillar, but they are real pests.
HollowNaught@lemmy.world · 104 pts · 22d
prettybunnys@piefed.social · 5 pts · 22d
The little bitty wasps that parasitize the oleander aphids on my milkweed are some of my best buddies.
bricklove@midwest.social · 4 pts · 22d
The wasps are fine until you unwittingly jam a weed puller into their ground nest. They don't like when you do that.
Ilixtze@lemmy.ml · 25 pts · 22d
Season 2 of scavengers reign please
rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social · 8 pts · 22d
sad sigh
Lampadaire_raclette@jlai.lu · 5 pts · 22d
If only
Jilanico@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 22d
That virus sounds useful for transplant patients 🤔
Big_Boss_77@fedinsfw.app · 13 pts · 22d
Depends if the organs pop out after reboot or not...
Quokka@quokk.au · 23 pts · 22d
Imagine getting a kidney transplant and it eats its way out of you and turns into a giant wasp.
m4xie@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 22d
This sounds like rule 34.
Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de · 5 pts · 22d
Surely some furry artist did this already. Most likely with fascinating bodily proportions.
troybot@piefed.social · 6 pts · 22d
You have to press F8 to reboot your immune system into safe mode
warm@kbin.earth · 14 pts · 22d
fuck wasps
Steve@startrek.website · 10 pts · 22d
Thanks I hate it
laranis@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 21d
Townlately@feddit.nl · 4 pts · 22d
You see this - are you tempted to pick them off?
OwOarchist@pawb.social · 5 pts · 22d
Nah, they're too small to make a decent meal of.
evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21d
Every one of those pupae will hatch a wasp that will go protect another one of your tomato plants.
wrinkle2409@lemmy.cafe · 3 pts · 22d
Burn it
Knuschberkeks@leminal.space · 1 pts · 20d
That's metal af, tbh.