Sunday 19 May 2013

Cotesia cuprea (Lyle)

A larva of Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) that I found feeding on Sheep's sorrel (Rumex acetosella) on Baildon Bank (VC64) has been the victim of a parasitoid attack.
I can count seven woolly braconid cocoons underneath the larva and I suspect that these will belong to Cotesia cuprea (Lyle).
It is gregarious, killing the host as a final instar larva, and sometimes reasonably common from the host (though the Hyposoter that mummifies the larva is often commoner). A brood in single figures would be quite unusual and they can sometimes number twenty or more.