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Project Noah Nature School
Opodiphthera eucalypti
A "clutch" of over 20 cream coloured eggs, each about 3mm long. They had uniformly cut openings suggestive of recent hatching. Eggs had a pale brown streak. There appeared to be some silken webbing around them but could not say fro certain if this was anchoring eggs to the tree bark
Spotted on the bark of a Giant Eucalyptus tree
Thanks to martinl for confirming that these are the eggs of a Saturnid moth - the more common Emperor Gum Moth, a native to Australia. To entomologists out there, is "clutch" applicable to insect eggs ??. Thanks
Spotted on Jan 15, 2013
Submitted on Jan 19, 2013
8 Comments
Yes strange that no food is not immediately available and not laid in tidy lines.
Photo No.1: is a beautiful photo....
Yes, I see what you mean martin. She must have been in a hurry ! Hopefully the caterpillars found some leaves - long way to go ! I hope I get to see the fabulous moth one day. I read that they also like the Peppercorn tree and we have one in our backyard...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/168...
Martin, I am not able to open your link but I am happy to accept your suggestion. Thank you.
I believe that the emperor gum moth is the only common saturnid that we find locally, The other candidate is the helena gum moth. My female moth has laid eggs on the window sill (admittedly there was no foliage option for her) and the clusters can be larger and very messy. See in this series http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/168...
Thanks Martin. I initially thought that these were Emperor Gum Moth eggs because the individual eggs look so similar but on looking further, I had my doubts. Just 2 factors:
- why are they in a cluster? no sign of any mucilage - all the pics I referred to had the eggs in groups or in a single line but always in one single layer.
- the emperor gum moth is stated lay eggs on leaves where the caterpillars can eat straight away. That's why I left it as Saturnid moth eggs.
Having said all this - you know this species very well. So, could you please clarify further...thanks
I think these eggs are the same.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/869...