2020 Online Salon
Living a Double Life: Cotesia congregata
Project Details
- Entrant Name: Saraina Adam
- Membership Type: Student Submission
- Address: Chicago, Illinois USA
- Client: N/A
- Copyright: 2019 Saraina Adam
- Medium/software used: Adobe Photoshop 2018, Pixologic zBrush 2019, Keyshot 8
- Final presentation format: Printed Poster 20” x 24”
- Primary Audience: Undergraduate students in an introductory ecology course
Project Description
Parasitoids present an unusual life cycle: they cannot be classified as parasites because of a free-living stage, but their eggs and larvae must develop inside a host. Unlike classic parasites, parasitoid activity ends with the death of the host. There are over 30,000 species of parasitoid wasps, with some species parasitizing other wasp larvae. Though their lifecycle is somewhat grotesque, they perform an important ecological role in managing the populations of their hosts, the tomato hornworm in the case of C. congregata. This poster illustrates the unique lifecycle of C. congregata, highlighting the spatial and size differences of the wasp as it grows from its first larval stages under the cuticle of the hornworm, to its emergence and pupal stage inside a cocoon, and its adult stage outside the host.
This poster applied skills acquired over the course of a semester; all models were sculpted and painted in Pixologic zBrush, lit in Keyshot 8, and composited in Adobe Photoshop.
