frass expulsion

[Bill Cornelius]

Maybe larvae grow bacteria in their gut & the early instars don't have the
right kind yet? sounds sort of lame, how'bout parasites locate early larvae by
the vitamin B content of their poop? I know ticks & fleas don't bite me if
I've eaten Vit B. Somebody else do the test.

Bill

Liz Day wrote:

> >As for the projectile frass thing, could it be that the caterpillars
> >simply want to get the frass of the leaves they're on? Big caterpillars
> >would have no problem with this as their frass is heavy and drops
> >easily, where as small caterpillars' frass does not.
>
> It could be. It seems the few kinds of larvae I've watched, they either
> shoot the frass or they don't, from the time they're tiny until they're
> large. As we talk about this, and the advantages of making sure your
> frass doesn't fall to rest on a nearby leaf, I'm wondering why ALL larvae
> don't shoot it out. Saturniids just let it fall. Even if you are
> hanging on the underside of a leaf, it might come to rest on the leaf below
> you. And they have plenty of parasitoids. Mysterious.
>
> Liz
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Liz Day
> Indianapolis, Indiana, central USA (40 N, ~86 W)
> Home of budgerigar Tweeter and the beautiful pink inchworm (Eupithecia
> miserulata).
> USDA zone 5b. Winters ~20F, summers ~85F. Formerly temperate deciduous
> forest.
> daylight at kiva.net
> www.kiva.net/~daylight
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