WHITE BUTTERFLY WASP Cotesia glomerata CABBAGE BUTTERFLY Pieris brassicae Like the spotted ladybug, the caterpillar of the cabbage butterfly plays bodyguard to a parasitic puppet master. A female white butterfly wasp injects a caterpillar with several dozen eggs. The larvae hatch, feed, grow ... then paralyze their still living host and chew their way out. As the caterpillar comes to, the larvae spin little cocoons beneath it. Rather than leave them to fend for themselves, their enslaved host spins an extra silk layer around the cocoons, then stands guard over the brood, flinging its head back and forth to ward off predators.
