Star Wars Garden Gnome Doomed Caterpillars

Caterpillar (perhaps hummingbird clearwing moth, Hemaris thysbe) alongside braconid wasp cocoons on Viburnum dentatum 'Chicago Lustre'

In my concluding post, I talked well-nigh looking for a caterpillar together with finding a small-scale tree frog on an arrowwood viburnum (Viburnum dentatum 'Chicago Lustre').

Today, on the same shrub, I establish 2 large caterpillars that had been attacked yesteryear to a greater extent than or less form of parasitoid wasps.

The wasps - which I believe belong to ane of the 15,000-plus known species of 'braconid wasps' - lay their eggs inward the caterpillars. The larvae mature within the caterpillar, together with thus emerge to build cocoons on the caterpillar's back, where they tin plow over the axe metamorphose into wasps together with maintain their life cycle.

Incidentally, I believe the caterpillars are the larvae of the hummingbird clearwing sphinx moth (Hemaris thysbe). The adult moth is quite beautiful.