Eggs from Good Guys or Bad Guys? Photos

COgarden · August 20, 2007

I saw this leaf today on a Sungold plant. I've never seen eggs like these. Any idea of what sort of bug they are from? I would think it was a fairly large bug just from the volume of eggs. For an idea of the scale of the photo the leaf is about 1.5 inches tip to base. If its good bugs I want to leave them be. If its bad bugs, well, I may have to let them hatch out just to watch

. Can't help myself. I love a good science project!

Kurt

EDIT: Had to add a quick thank you to Mischka for allowing us to upload photos directly to T'ville! It is sooo much easier than using another site to host the photos.

MsCowpea · August 20, 2007

Those are interesting. I have never seen a leaf completely covered like that.

Can't tell from the photo what shape they are--ie round, barrel shaped, etc Do you have a 10x hand lens?

They must be awful tiny if that leaf is only 1.5 ".

Here is a picture I found on the web of some unknown caterpillar eggs but I don't know how big they are.
http://www.uidaho.edu/so-id/entomolo...orm%20eggs.jpg

What sort of adult insects are you seeing in your garden?

I agree with you--let them hatch out--good or bad (in the interest of science)

.

bcday · August 20, 2007

What surprises me is that they are on the top surface of the leaf, exposed to the weather and in plain sight of any critters looking for a nutritious snack. It will be really interesting to see what hatches out.

COgarden · August 20, 2007

MsCowpea- they appear to be round, and yes they are very small, although the overall volume of them is fairly large. Unfortunately I don't have any additional magnification. While it is an outside chance I did see an insect on my screen door just a couple days ago that I have never seen. About 1.5 inches long, pale green. It looked like a cross between a grasshopper and a praying mantis. It didn't have the grasping front legs and its head was not raised up from its abdomen like a praying mantis. Much more slender and delicate than a grasshopper however. I carefully caught it and let it go about 10 feet from the plant in the photo. About 5 hours later I saw a very similar critter on the same screen, but this had a much heavier abdomen, almost like what you picture on a mature mantis. This one was on the outside of the screen so I left it alone. I have considered that this might be the parent of the eggs, but there are so many other possibilities I didn't want to make assumptions. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket after all!

bcday- I agree, the location is super exposed. Not only is it on the upper surface of the leaf but it actually gets dappled direct sunlight through the day! I can't imagine they were laid by more than one female, though, with the very complete and consistent pattern. I will definitely keep checking on them and take photos when possible. Hopefully the action won't all take place while I'm at work! I'm also going to try to find online photos of something similar to the creatures I found on my screen. If I find anything I'll be sure to post here. Thanks for your thoughts.

Kurt

dcarch · August 20, 2007

Western Bean Cutworm (WBC) activity continues to increase in the Rosemount area. Blacklight trap catches have remained at 40 moths per night from 7/14 to 7/17. This level of moth catch is the highest moth catch in Rosemount since trapping began in 2002.
WBC eggs are laid in clusters of about 50 eggs on the upper-side of the leaf near the mid-rib. Initially eggs are white and develop a darker purplish color as they mature and approach hatching. Eggs hatch in approximately 7-10 days and larvae can feed on tassels in the whorl and then move to the silk and ears in sweet corn. Until we have further recommendations for WBC in Minnesota sweet corn, we are recommending an Idaho-based threshold of 2-3% of the plants with WBC egg masses, from tassel through silk. For more information about WBC, please visit the University of Illinois fact sheet (http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/vegetables/insects/western_bean_cutworm/).

dcarch

COgarden · August 21, 2007

Well I think I've roughly identified the bugs on my screen. They appear to be a type of tree cricket. The exact type is unclear but the average measurement from nose to the end of the abdomen is pretty close to what I saw. My estimate of 1.5 inches was from tip of front legs to rear tip of wings. It looked alot like the four spotted at this site

http://www.musicofnature.com/songsof...ecrickets.html

At any rate the tree crickets seem to embed their eggs in the stems of trees so I don't think that is where the eggs came from.

dcarch, while the number of eggs doesn't match up for that exact moth, the eggs do look alot like those in the photo. I'll have to do some more research to see if it may be a closely related moth! Very interesting that they lay their eggs on the top of the leaves! Thank you for your research.

Kurt

COgarden · August 21, 2007

dcarch- if its not the exact moth you found it has to be something very close. I found this photo which says it is of the same moth, and it sure looks alot like what I found. I'm starting to have second thoughts about that science project I mentioned!

http://cropwatch.unl.edu/photos/cwph...stbncutegg.jpg

Thanks again,

Kurt

August 20, 2007	#2
MsCowpea Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: S. FLorida / Zone 10 Posts: 369	Those are interesting. I have never seen a leaf completely covered like that. Can't tell from the photo what shape they are--ie round, barrel shaped, etc Do you have a 10x hand lens? They must be awful tiny if that leaf is only 1.5 ". Here is a picture I found on the web of some unknown caterpillar eggs but I don't know how big they are. http://www.uidaho.edu/so-id/entomolo...orm%20eggs.jpg What sort of adult insects are you seeing in your garden? I agree with you--let them hatch out--good or bad (in the interest of science) . __________________ "When we kill off the natural enemies of a pest we inherit their work." Carl Huffaker

August 20, 2007	#5
dcarch Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: NY Posts: 2,618	Western Bean Cutworm (WBC) activity continues to increase in the Rosemount area. Blacklight trap catches have remained at 40 moths per night from 7/14 to 7/17. This level of moth catch is the highest moth catch in Rosemount since trapping began in 2002. WBC eggs are laid in clusters of about 50 eggs on the upper-side of the leaf near the mid-rib. Initially eggs are white and develop a darker purplish color as they mature and approach hatching. Eggs hatch in approximately 7-10 days and larvae can feed on tassels in the whorl and then move to the silk and ears in sweet corn. Until we have further recommendations for WBC in Minnesota sweet corn, we are recommending an Idaho-based threshold of 2-3% of the plants with WBC egg masses, from tassel through silk. For more information about WBC, please visit the University of Illinois fact sheet (http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/vegetables/insects/western_bean_cutworm/). dcarch __________________ tomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomato matomato tomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomato matomato tomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomato matomato

August 20, 2007	#3
bcday Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: NY z5 Posts: 1,205	What surprises me is that they are on the top surface of the leaf, exposed to the weather and in plain sight of any critters looking for a nutritious snack. It will be really interesting to see what hatches out.

August 20, 2007	#4
COgarden Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: CO Zone 5 Posts: 97	MsCowpea- they appear to be round, and yes they are very small, although the overall volume of them is fairly large. Unfortunately I don't have any additional magnification. While it is an outside chance I did see an insect on my screen door just a couple days ago that I have never seen. About 1.5 inches long, pale green. It looked like a cross between a grasshopper and a praying mantis. It didn't have the grasping front legs and its head was not raised up from its abdomen like a praying mantis. Much more slender and delicate than a grasshopper however. I carefully caught it and let it go about 10 feet from the plant in the photo. About 5 hours later I saw a very similar critter on the same screen, but this had a much heavier abdomen, almost like what you picture on a mature mantis. This one was on the outside of the screen so I left it alone. I have considered that this might be the parent of the eggs, but there are so many other possibilities I didn't want to make assumptions. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket after all! bcday- I agree, the location is super exposed. Not only is it on the upper surface of the leaf but it actually gets dappled direct sunlight through the day! I can't imagine they were laid by more than one female, though, with the very complete and consistent pattern. I will definitely keep checking on them and take photos when possible. Hopefully the action won't all take place while I'm at work! I'm also going to try to find online photos of something similar to the creatures I found on my screen. If I find anything I'll be sure to post here. Thanks for your thoughts. Kurt

August 21, 2007	#6
COgarden Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: CO Zone 5 Posts: 97	Well I think I've roughly identified the bugs on my screen. They appear to be a type of tree cricket. The exact type is unclear but the average measurement from nose to the end of the abdomen is pretty close to what I saw. My estimate of 1.5 inches was from tip of front legs to rear tip of wings. It looked alot like the four spotted at this site http://www.musicofnature.com/songsof...ecrickets.html At any rate the tree crickets seem to embed their eggs in the stems of trees so I don't think that is where the eggs came from. dcarch, while the number of eggs doesn't match up for that exact moth, the eggs do look alot like those in the photo. I'll have to do some more research to see if it may be a closely related moth! Very interesting that they lay their eggs on the top of the leaves! Thank you for your research. Kurt