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Project Noah Nature School
Homodes bracteigutta
26 Oct 2014: Caterpillar body length 17mm, with characteristic feathery paddles which sheltered its head at rest. At rest it was curled up (pic 1). The caterpillar looked like dried debris on the leaf. Its white 'saddle' is what caught my eye. I reared it and on the 14 Nov 2014 this is what emerged. The moth looked like a brown leaf with a mid-vein. Moth body length 7mm. Wingspan 15mm.
Found on Macroptilium atropurpureum. In grassland at Silver Crescent Park, Clifton Beach QLD
..maybe I should not have said 'many' but we have found a few lately. I suspect he has a problem with the volume of it all as a single person now.
Thanks, Andrea, I believe you. But then we have a problem with the ID of this one:
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_...
Obviously THIS ID is wrong!!
Thanks for the feedback and discussion. Bayucca, just confirming I had the caterpillar in a container with pieces the host plant and this moth emerged.
Thanks for your input! For me or my eyes the similarities of Andrea's caterpillar with H. bracteigutta are too close for being another one ;-)...
I know that there are others around, I am still sceptic about moth and caterpillar being the same ones. However, the description tell us another story, so it should be another one, but really which one??
The adult Homodes look quite different.
I am looking forward to more discussions :-)!
As Andrea wrote in the description the moth is the result after emerging. So in the meanwhile I am more confused than convinced.
I agree with bayucca's id. However I think the moth has developed from the caterpillar. A close look of the hairs of bracteigutta larva is like water droplets. That in photo is more like paddles. There are many undescribed moths in Australia. I feel this is likely to be a Homodes sp, but different to bracteigutta. Why not send photos to Ted Edwards of ANIC?
Noctuidae, Catocalinae (probably older taxonomy, now should be Erebidae, but do not know the correct subfamily and tribe, so Noctuidae and Catocalinae might be a little bit outdated but definitely NOT wrong ;-)...), Homodes bracteigutta, I would say...
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au...
http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Tax...
But the caterpillar and the adult moth are not the same genus/species!! The adult might also be a Noctuidae? So, please, make a separate spotting of the adult moth, that we can ID it.
Spotted on Oct 26, 2014
Submitted on Nov 14, 2014
+1
