Thread subject: Diptera.info :: spider with parasitic larva
Posted by Sundew on 02-08-2008 23:56
#1
Hi,
Yesterday I saw this young
Araneus diadematus spider in my garden. I took a photograph because of its nice colours and then noticed a yellow "swelling" on the side of its abdomen that is obviously a larva. I know Pompilid wasps burying paralyzed spiders with an added egg, but I did not know that unburied lively spiders can be attacked by parasitic larvae. Which insects can be such parasites?
Thanks for any information, Sundew
Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 03-08-2008 01:39
#2
it is probably an Ichneumonoidea wasp.
Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 03-08-2008 01:47
#3
Pompilidae wasps only paralyze them... and then they give the spider to their larvae... and the spider is ate alive (it is like a dead-alive)...
Sphecidae wasps predate on spiders, for example. And Ichneumonoidea wasps parasite the spiders.
In diptera, only the famous Acroceridae flies parasite them. Acrocerids are really true ENDOparasitoids of spiders.
Posted by ChrisR on 03-08-2008 15:08
#4
Reminds me of a polysphinctine pimplid larva, but the ones I have seen were always on the anterodorsal part of the abdomen. Nice photos :)