Eggs:
Caterpillar appearance:
As they advance instars they devolope an 'eyespot' on their thorax
Caterpillar host plant: papaya
Caterpillar camouflage: they dwell on the underside of papaya leaves. They rest neatly on the stems of the papaya leaves, causing them to blend in almost perfectly with the stems.
Parasitic wasps.
These are the wasps egg cluster
The black wasps lay eggs inside the caterpillar and as the caterpillar advances the wasps slowly eat the caterpillar from the inside and emerge sometime during the last instar, which of course ends the caterpillars life
12/11/17
Above are the parasitic wasp larvae emerging from my Alope Sphinx. I couldn't stand to see the caterpillar suffer any longer so we placed it inside the freezer...
I want to start off by saying that not all of my Alopes exserted signs of parasites but heres the signs I did noticed on the ones that did.
1. The caterpillar isn't plump; by this I mean the caterpillar is 'mushy' in some parts of its thorax or abdomen instead of being fully plump all around.
(see picture below)
2. It has dark spots. Alope Sphinx caterpillars are a light green so when there is a darker green section on their thorax or abdomen it may mean the caterpillar is harboring parasitic wasps eggs
3. The caterpillar may act lethargic.. it may respond slowly to your touch, will not eat much or refuses to eat all together (this could be confused with changing instars so beware) or the caterpillar doesn't move.
light green with long horn on their abdomen.
Enemies
Signs of parasitic wasps eggs in Alope Sphinx caterpillars:
