Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Clouded footman ♀, cocoon, eggs

Anestia ombrophanes

Description:

An oval shaped open-weave cocoon made from the hairs of a very hairy caterpillar. After the wingless female moth has pupated she emerged to lay her tiny, pearly eggs all over the matrix and died when finished. In some photos the remains of the pupal sheath can be seen within the cocoon. The whole structure is about 25mm long. The last pic 2 days later shows her up on the cage face down abdomen up. The abdomen was slowly waving in the air.

Habitat:

On a Corymbia maculata trunk in a local nature reserve.

Notes:

http://bie.ala.org.au/species/Anestia+om...
Update! I checked her out 2 days later and she was still alive and had traveled all of 30mm and climbed on top of the cage. I suspect her previous eggs are infertile as she's still trying to get a mate by waving her abdomen around in the air. How many eggs left?
Male moth was spotted here http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/215...
Caterpillars hatching here http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/868...

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

35 Comments (1–25)

1177371
1177371 9 years ago

congrates on the spoting

MartinL
MartinL 9 years ago

Well done Mark, identified and with good information as always.

Sckel
Sckel 9 years ago

congratulations. this is surprising. you have many stars.

Desmond.E.S.O
Desmond.E.S.O 9 years ago

Congrats on SOTW!

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 9 years ago

Congratulations Mark! A winner all the way.

Maria dB
Maria dB 9 years ago

Congratulations, Mark!

Leuba Ridgway
Leuba Ridgway 9 years ago

Congratulations Mark ! It is an exciting spotting.

Ashutosh Dudhatra
Ashutosh Dudhatra 9 years ago

Congrats!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Thanks so much everyone for the SOTW. I'd like to think she would feel it was all worthwhile. Thanks James and Satyen.

James McNair
James McNair 9 years ago

Congrats again Mark! Way to go buddy!

Wild Things
Wild Things 9 years ago

Congratulations Mark!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Thanks Annie :)

AnnieLopezReyes
AnnieLopezReyes 9 years ago

Congratulations!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Wow thanks for the good words everyone. This has been a fascinating story to research and learn about. I sort of feel sorry for her a bit but... each species to their own I guess. Added links to caterpillars hatching and male moth.

kdpicturemaker
kdpicturemaker 9 years ago

What an artist! Oh you too Mark, congratulations on another great photo and series.

SukanyaDatta
SukanyaDatta 9 years ago

Unbelievable! What a find.

JoshuaGSmith
JoshuaGSmith 9 years ago

This is incredible! Epic find!

Yasser
Yasser 9 years ago

Mark, this is one of the most fascinating animal structures I've seen on PN. Beyond the beauty of the structure, reading about the moth and the process was also very cool. Thanks for sharing and providing such rich details and congrats on having this selected as Spotting of the Week!

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/projectnoah/status/5...

lori.tas
lori.tas 9 years ago

Amazing find, Mark.

Christiane
Christiane 9 years ago

WOW...

pamsai
pamsai 9 years ago

great spotting and info, Mark. May she find a mate!

Gerardo Aizpuru
Gerardo Aizpuru 9 years ago

Fantastic :)

Maria dB
Maria dB 9 years ago

What an interesting spotting - the update makes it even more interesting.

Fyn Kynd
Fyn Kynd 9 years ago

Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Thanks Antonio, Bill, James.

Mark Ridgway
Spotted by
Mark Ridgway

Victoria, Australia

Spotted on Jan 29, 2015
Submitted on Jan 30, 2015

Related Spottings

Clouded footman Clouded Footman Clouded footman Clouded Footman  Caterpillar

Nearby Spottings

Green soldier fly Slime Mold Grey Midge Black scale
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team