Cleaning seed

It's seed cleaning time for the 200 or so collections from my gardens and the wild. I am way behind this year and almost missed getting seed into the North American Rock Garden society seed exchange.

One never knows what you will find while cleaning seed. Sometimes the seed is not ripe, or viable. Sometimes insects have eaten more than their share. In the case of Veratrum tennuipetalum (skunk cabbage, or California corngirl) there is some insect that eats through some of the seeds and then pupates or lays egg cases in the seed pods. I assume they are larva who have eaten through some of the seeds.

You can see a good seed right infront of the insect pupa, a damaged seed to the right and the seed pods to the far right, the small round things are assorted flowers parts and insect frass.

I don't know what type of insect it is as this is the only stage I ever see. Perhaps it is like the Yucca moth which pollinates the Yucca flowers and then lays its' eggs in the flowers so the developing larva can eat some of the developing seeds. Nature is rather crafty.