Return of Jabba the Hutt

What am I looking at?

This is a ventral view (of the underside) of the caterpillar stage of a planthopper parasite moth (Epipyrops exigua). You can see its head, with three pairs of simple eyes, or ocelli (1), as well as its mandibles (2), visible under its prominent labrum (the upper “lip”) at the top of the image. You can also see its highly reduced, jointed thoracic legs (3), equipped with the hooks that it uses to latch onto its host.

Biology in the background

Planthopper parasite moths live all across North America, below the Arctic Circle. Their caterpillars are unique in the Lepidoptera order that includes moths and butterflies in that they are ectoparasites; that means they attach themselves to the body of another insect, typically a planthopper (in the infraorder Fulgoromorpha), and feed on their circulatory fluid, known as hemolymph, as they grow. The mature caterpillar detaches from the husk of its host and pupates while affixed to a twig or a blade of grass. It then spins a thick-walled, oval, white cocoon with three to five triangular bumps on its dorsal (top) side.

These caterpillars are about 3 millimeters long, or roughly eight times smaller than the width of a human thumbnail.

Technique

These images were created using confocal microscopy.