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What is This?
- Thread starter nPeace
- Start date
Father Heathen
Veteran Member
Looks like the pupa stage of an insect.
nPeace
Veteran Member
Yes, but I am trying to figure out which insect.
I googled all the insects I though it might be, but with none matching. So I figured someone here might know.
Not sure, but what ever neck of the globe your in would be a good place to start. It's definitely some sort of insect.
nPeace
Veteran Member
Aha! I think you nailed it!
I have some corn planted.
Oh boy. You mean I gotta watch my corn for critters.
Viker
Häxan
Yup. I see them smashed all over the back roads around here.Aha! I think you nailed it!
I have some corn planted.
Oh boy. You mean I gotta watch my corn for critters.
nPeace
Veteran Member
Oh dear. My beans too!
The corn earworm can cause serious economic damage to fresh market and processing sweet corn and hybrid dent seed corn. Also known as the tomato fruit worm, the larvae feed on field corn, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, and snap beans.
I gotta get me a biochemical. I can't allow this.
The corn earworm can cause serious economic damage to fresh market and processing sweet corn and hybrid dent seed corn. Also known as the tomato fruit worm, the larvae feed on field corn, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers, and snap beans.
I gotta get me a biochemical. I can't allow this.
YoursTrue
Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
You might ask @Dan From Smithville, as I recall he is an expert on insects. However, the insect looks like a nice piece of wood with a nice pattern to it.
YoursTrue
Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
Insects are so interesting. Although I kill ants crawling around the house when I can. Although they sense my finger coming down on them and run as fast as they can. I have learned to watch how my finger smashes on them so they don't know it's going to hit them. I don't have too many, but they're there. Amazing, isn't it?
We lived in a part of the country (U.S.) that had stink bugs. They would like to fly into the house for some (odd) reason. I found that spraying hairspray on them would down them and then I'd would smash them.
We lived in a part of the country (U.S.) that had stink bugs. They would like to fly into the house for some (odd) reason. I found that spraying hairspray on them would down them and then I'd would smash them.
nPeace
Veteran Member
I got the answer already, from @Viker.
They seem to be able to identify insects.
I wonder if they can help me identify snake like worms. I have a video, of one slithering along on my bathroom floor.
It was tough to kill. I had to hit it with a metal object before it split in two. I couldn't crush it.
I found an ideal way to try and control the corn earworm, and I'll try to stop the moth from getting at the corn.
4 Ways to Control Corn Earworms in Your Garden Naturally
Pupa are the transformative stage prior to the adult stage of holometabolous insects. Beetles, moths, butterflies, flies, bees, wasps and ants all have a pupal stage. The particular one in your photos is the pupa of an insect in the order Lepidoptera (butterflies, moths and skippers). To properly identify it, evidence about the pupa in question needs to be taken into account. The location, date and conditions in which it is found. Available host plants can help narrow down the identification in some instances. The size, shape and length, identifying characteristics (naked pupa as in the picture), color and markings, and any other distinct morphological features may indicate separately or together the species in question.
If you are in the US, there about 15,000 recognized species in the order Lepidotpera and these will vary across the country and with the time of the year. Many Lepidoptera pupate as naked pupae (chrysalis--used to describe the pupae of butterflies) on or in the soil as this one appears. Moths will often spin a cocoon of silk and sometimes include debris. Butterflies do not make cocoons, but neither do many species of moths. If it has a cocoon, it is a moth. If not it could be either a moth or a butterfly.
The pupa in the picture is without cocoon, so that indicates it is not a member of some species of moth, but not that it isn't a moth species.
Corn earworm (CEW) is a good guess based on general coloration and shape, but I don't think that is what it is. Pupae vary, but the general shape and often color can be fairly common. Without scale in the photos, it is difficult to say, but I get a general sense it is more elongate than a CEW pupa and the heavy, swooping wing veination visible at the head end of the pupa is not consistent with CEW. The light and dark banding is also not seen in CEW. I have raised hundreds and thousands of CEW and related species of the family Noctuidae (CEW and related species). None of those have pupae consistent with the features I have noted in the photo. Of course my experience is limited to those species of Noctuidae and that does eliminate it as a noctuid definitively.
Definitive identification requires that it be kept alive and incubated to eclosion and identification made via examination of the adult specimen. I suppose it could be dissected to look at the developing morphology, but that would require a significant level of expertise and some expensive equipment.
Spurious or misidentification of an insect is generally a triviality. But in research or agriculture it can be a costly error. If it is misidentified as a pest species when it is not, a farmer might spend money to control it that was an unnecessary financial and environmental cost, for instance.
Most insects including most Lepidoptera are not pests or do not reach the level of a pest in case you are worried. For the home gardener, even finding the evidence of a pest is something to keep in mind that would warrant further observation. Finding a single pupa may not mean a future infestation that wipes out your veggies or roses.
Stinkbugs will often overwinter as adults in some parts of the US. As winter approaches, these adults look for nice comfortable places to quiet down over the winter. A home often looks good to them. This phenomenon is not limited to stinkbugs either. Beetles and even wasps will often look to our homes as a nice hangout for the winter. Bringing in houseplants is also a good way for insects and other animals (my mother brought in a spring peeper one late fall) to find their way into your house.Insects are so interesting. Although I kill ants crawling around the house when I can. Although they sense my finger coming down on them and run as fast as they can. I have learned to watch how my finger smashes on them so they don't know it's going to hit them. I don't have too many, but they're there. Amazing, isn't it?
We lived in a part of the country (U.S.) that had stink bugs. They would like to fly into the house for some (odd) reason. I found that spraying hairspray on them would down them and then I'd would smash them.
I have noticed in the past that persistent rains during the spring seem to drive ants into the house. Though, I never looked into this further to verify my observations with observations noted in the literature.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
I went in a totally different direction. An earworm is also a song that gets stuck in one's head. This could be a "corn" earworm:
Post the video. Do you get many of these worms?
Superficially, most lep pupae look very similar. There are some features that make me think otherwise though.
In an aside, the pupal stage is often referred to as a quiescent stage, even by some scientists. But this isn't really true. There is a lot of change taking place that isn't readily seen and they are not completely immobile like a mummy.
They sense and respond (in a limited way) as pupae. Simply passing my hand close over the top of a tray containing lep pupae causes them to wriggle. I am not sure what they are responding to. Whether it is change in light, air movement or temperature change that elicits the response. It might even be sound that is imperceptible to the observer. For me, it is a geek entomologist trick to show visitors.
YoursTrue
Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
Ain't it interesting, takes me back to the droughts and famines caused by whatever situations may have caused them in the past. Thank you. There is, of course, diatomaceous earth for plants which you probably know about.
YoursTrue
Faith-confidence in what we hope for (Hebrews 11)
I've learned from living in the north that mice have a little habit of entering a home for winter stays.
OK, take care, DanFS.
Are you certain that is a worm. It seems like a snake to me. Did it have a head and eyes?