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Project Noah Nature School
Entometa fervens
This Lasiocampid mother-to-be was drawn to powerful night lights and ended up laying her eggs in an impossible location. A very real consequence of light pollution? About 70mm wingspan. We checked the eggs on the following day and they seemed mostly desiccated but still took them to the base of a local species of eucalyptus.
On the hood of a red Fiat, late at night, adjacent to a national park.
http://www1.ala.org.au/gallery2/d/20181-...
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au...
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:b...
Eggs progress here http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/197...
Spotted on Jan 28, 2014
Submitted on Jan 29, 2014
5 Comments
Exciting !!!...just as well I brought some home (taken off a hot car). Noticed at least 4 hatched. Caterpillars are very active, about 10 mm long and are black and furry.
Have given them some gum and wattle leaves. 7Feb14
Wow!! A few of the eggs have actually hatched :-)
Used to see lots of this sort of activity many years ago - moths laying eggs I mean - but rarely now, probably am in wrong place, wrong time, but your images reminded me just how magical it is to see. Shame they did not survive.
Thanks Stephen. I checked for the eggs today thinking to move them to a better spot but being a sunny day they were totally desicated. :-(
Light pollution is a reason we are seeing so many less creatures in some places I suspect. Things like this impact on their overall survivability rather as loss of habitat does. Nice shots