Fly pupa?

[chris kline]

 I work at franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, Ohio and we are currently 
having our butterfly exhibit.  Something that the butterfly specialist found, 
and that I found on one occasion last year as the bfly spec' is what looks like 
mouse droppings in the bottom of the emergence cage.  The cage has latching 
doors so that it would be impossible for an actual rodent to get inside, but 
what was found looks all the world like rodent droppings.  Under a hand lens you 
can see ridges circling the object.  The object is dark brown, a little more 
than a quarter inch long and about half as wide, rounded at both ends.

My theory, and feel free to shoot it down, is that a fly or another insect lays 
an egg on the chrysalis, the larva eats the inside of the chrysalis, emerges, 
and falls to the ground, or in this case the bottom of the cage, to pupate.

Does anyone have experience with this sort of phenomena?

chris
 

Chris Kline 
Sugar Grove, Ohio
Follow my 2011 Big Butterfly Year on Facebook at Butterfly Rider or at 
http://butterflyrider.blogspot.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/leps-l/attachments/20110513/9569b05d/attachment.html