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A strange pattern of frass? found on a well mined eucalyptus leaf. I was particularly fascinated by the 'star-like' arrangement on the leaf stem.
Open dry eucalyptus forest.
A possible culprit here... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/139...
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piloprepes...
Spotted on Sep 18, 2012
Submitted on Oct 8, 2012
6 Comments
Recently found that a particular Oecophorid larva covers itself on a leaf with frass to pupate... one of the Wingia group.
Yes I agree it could be that although they seem to wear the frass as larvae...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/805...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/235...
Maybe?:
http://bicep.net.au/gonipterous-spp/
Amazing!
Nice theory martin. It would be great to catch one early then and see it in action.
Argy Bee. I have seen these before and this is an unsolved mystery. I suspect a caterpillar building a fence of spikes on the petiole before it pupates. I have only seen them after they have departed, as yours also shows.