No, they were sterlised at the USA end. We had to give it our best shot to prevent gregarines arriving at the facility. We have some frozen USA adults if you have time/funding/capacity to compare to the NZ hatched. (or I could bring back more when I go to the USA)

Interesting that they do this, it must be an anti predator deterrent or camoflauge. It didn't appear that the larvae were eating it at emergence.

Frass :( poo :( high chance of gregarines spreading to newly hatched larvae but we've tried our best to bleach clean & transfer to fresh leaves ASAP. Fingers crossed

The takoyakis are hatching! The little octopus tentacles are crawling around! #biocontrol #beetles #entomology