MORE ON THE SAGA OF THE VAPOURER MOTH EGGS

A couple of weeks back we published a story about a batch of eggs laid by a vapourer moth (that's it to the right of the right hand image - the females only have tiny vestigial wings) Orgyia antiqua. What we all wanted to know was whether the red mites were attacking the eggs.




The general consensus of opinion was that it probably was.



A couple of days ago Graeme Stroud, the photographer wrote to me with the larger image..



Jonathan,

If it’s of any interest – I took this picture of the same batch of eggs yesterday. They’ve greyed down a bit over the couple of weeks, but they look to me to be completely undamaged.

Regards,
Graeme

It looks as if the red mites were innocent after all. But what were they doing if they weren't planning to eat the eggs?