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Project Noah Nature School
Aenetus blackburnii
At branch nodes; a soft, silk and timber tent; approx 50mm length by 30mm diam.; this covers the entrance to a hole in the plant stem of approx. 10mm diam.; inside is a larva, segmented, cream-pink orange-red head, short hook feet; larva approx. 50mm long.
Inside the stem of many species. (This one inside Dodonaea viscosa purpurea)
There's a good chance this is Aenetus blackburnii which specialises on Dodonaea viscosa)
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au...
The camouflage tent is laughably soft. The larva stays inside the stem for 5 to 6 years after which it pupates, leaves the stem and spends 48 hours without a mouth seeking to mate. It then dies. What a life!
We are feeling a little bit guilty in that one of these needed to be destroyed. There are many more on the plant and this could still turn out to be an introduced species. Can't determine whether this is ligniveren sp. until maturity. Picture 1 is the normal view of the 'tent' 2 is a close-up of the 'tent' material; 3 shows the entrance hole with the tent totally cleared; 4 a vertical split exposes the main chamber; 5 is the worm completely extricated; 6 is 2 days later showing the repair - the chamber is totally sealed again.
http://johngrehan.net/index.php/hepialid...
Spotted on Jan 19, 2012
Submitted on Jan 19, 2012
7 Comments
Very cool, kinda looks like sawdust for insulation/protection. Yet very different from the new one you found. Keep researching and I'll try to help out by looking into it also.
...but it seems almost certain they turned into these... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/919...
So we are hoping this spotting turns into these...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/829...
At first we thought we had an invader because the plant is a native of NZ - therefore it might have been virescens. The descriptions of either offers nothing to distinguish. The dilemma now is to let so many go until maturity at the risk they shouldn't be here.
There's some good research there! I've seen these sawdust tents occasionally and never done the dissection. (Except in NT where they are huge orange striped caterpilars). I've seen the green moth only once (Monbulk). I suspect you have been spoiled by your previous spotting because most swift moths are the ugly common brown ones that hit your porch lights repeatedly on hot summer nights.
Thanks Atul.
superb informative series Argy!!