A grisly end for a ladybird

When I first saw this ladybird on the back of a chair in my dining room I thought it was hibernating but a closer look revealed something more sinister.  The seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata) had been parasitised by a tiny parasitic braconid wasp (Dinocampus coccinellae).

The wasp lays an egg in the female ladybird using its sharp ovipositor to pierce the armour. When the wasp larva hatches it uses its large mandibles to kill and eat any other eggs or larvae which might be competition.  In its second, third and fourth instars (developmental stages) the larva eats the fat bodies and gonads of the ladybird but leaves the vital organs so the ladybird doesn't die.  When she lays her egg the wasp also injects a virus, Dinocampus coccinellae paralysis virus, which has no effect on the wasp or its larva but paralyses the ladybird by the time the larva emerges from its body, after about three weeks.  The larva then spins a cocoon between the ladybird's legs so it is protected by the immobile body above.  The adult wasp emerges about a week later.  My photos show the ladybird with the opened cocoon underneath it, after the wasp has emerged.  The ladybird is 5mm long so the opened end of the cocoon is 1mm.  Remarkably, 25% of ladybirds survive this ordeal although this one didn't.

And if this wasn't all strange enough, the wasps are produced by arrhenotokous parthenogenesis so they are all female.  And Dinocampus coccinellae can itself be parasitised by a tiny hyperparasitoid wingless wasp, Gelis agilis, which looks like an ant.  Isn't nature amazing?

I took about 100 photos over two days, experimenting with the focus and the lighting.  I used a Raynox 150 lens on the front of a Canon 100mm macro lens with a ring flash and an LED work light as a back light.  Most photos were out of focus, badly lit or badly exposed but these few were OK.  The first below is from the other side.