Moth Eggs on Spider Silk, ID help requested.

Walter Piorkowski · Post by **Walter Piorkowski** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 6:28 am

Moth Eggs on Spider Silk, ID help requested.

Image 1- Several moth eggs laid on abandoned spider web silk.
140 images at 5 micron increments. Olympus 10x SPlan objective.
16X magnification on the camera sensor.

Image 2- Hatched caterpillar from one of the eggs.
39 images at 10 micron increments. Leitz 6.3x NPL objective. 9.5x on sensor.

The moth eggs were discovered on the support line of an orb weaver web. The web was no longer in service by the host spider. The eggs were about 1/2 millimeter in diameter. Within 3 days of discovery all of the occupants had broken out of the eggs. Their size was remarkably small at 1 mm long.

Walt

Leitz Ortholux microscope
Canon 50D
Diffused strobe flash illumination
4x Leitz projection eyepiece with a 1/3X relay lens before sensor
Stacked in Zerene, Processed in Photoshop.

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 1:41 pm

Interesting!

Rogelio

GaryB · Post by **GaryB** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 1:49 pm

Excellent! First time I've seen those eggs up close, very cool structure.

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:44 am

Very nice

Sumguy01 · Post by **Sumguy01** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:45 pm

Very interesting.
Thanks for sharing.

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:28 pm

Hi Walt. Nice shots.

I posted what I think are the same eggs (and "hatchling") just over two years ago (Aug 2014) but received no clues as to an ID, even though they are quite pretty and distinctive.

carlos.uruguay · Post by **carlos.uruguay** » Tue Sep 27, 2016 6:09 am

Nice!

Walter Piorkowski · Post by **Walter Piorkowski** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:47 am

Thank you all for taking a look. Looks like their identity will remain a mystery.
Walt