We get our fair share of caterpillars here at the farm but were recently flummoxed to find one seemingly protecting its eggs. “Caterpillar’s don’t lay eggs,” we thought, “how can this be?!”
Martin, one of our volunteers, had been studying this phenomena at home and told us that the eggs hatch into flies and the caterpillar dies. We became determined to figure out what we were witnessing and why.
After some research Ruth, our Volunteer Coordinator, who suspected it had something to do with a parasite, unearthed the complex and fascinating story of life and death that was unfolding right in front of our eyes: