The year is racing by and photos I'd put aside for a moment are now a month out of date! No less interesting though and now seems a good time to bring out this photograph of an Ichneumon Wasp's cocoon (probably campoplegine). I had no idea what was in the cocoon until this morning, when David Notton, invertebrates expert from the Natural History Museum, helped me out on iSpot.
The Ichneumon's cocoon is the white bit that looks like a bird dropping (possibly to put off predators). The dried wrinkled skin above is the remainder of the caterpillar it parasitised. A happy coincidence that I should get this id just after posting the egg-laying Ichneumon video.
Also from June are these two photos showing weevil pupa inside intricately woven cocoons. These are likely to be from the Curculionidae family - 'True Weevils' or 'Snout Beetles'.
I find cocoons and what's going on inside them absolutely fascinating.
