Colourful Caterpillar

Description:

Very colourful, about 4cm long and seen eating the leaves of the Pigeon Pea tree (Cajanus cajan). Notodontidae is a family of moths with approximately 3,800 known species. Moths of this family are found in all parts of the world, but they are most concentrated in tropical areas, especially in the New World.

Notes:

Species of this family tend to be heavy-bodied and long-winged, the wings held folded across the back of the body at rest. They rarely display any bright colours, usually being mainly grey or brown, with the exception of the Dioptinae subfamily (Grimaldi and Engel, 2005). These features mean they rather resemble Noctuidae although the families are not closely related. The adults do not feed. Many species have a tuft of hair on the trailing edge of the forewing which protrudes upwards at rest. This gives them the common name of prominents. The common names of some other species reflect their hairiness, such as Puss Moth and the group commonly known as kittens (Furcula spp.), so named as they resemble small versions of the Puss Moth.