Lappet Moth (caterpillars)

Description:

Lasiocampidae; Pinarinae; Streblote; Streblote castanea (Swinhoe, 1892). The caterpillars shown in my photos were spotted this afternoon in our backyard. When I transferred the pictures to my laptop, to see them better, I knew immediately that I didn't have a clue as to the identification of this organism, other than recognising it as a moth larva. So, I set about the task of identification in my own amateur way and I think I got it right. In the hope that it might help other novices like myself, I will outline how I went about finding the name of this moth. I am slightly familiar with Tussock Moth larvae (Lymantriinae) and also Lappet Moths (Lasiocampidae) because I know that they are both "hairy". I also know the name of the tree they were on So, I was already leaning towards one of those two types. I started by asking Google which moths used Moringa oleifera (the tree) as a host plant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moringa_ol..... - appeared on my screen and in the Ecology Section, it stated that its pests included bark-eating caterpillars, hairy caterpillars and green leaf caterpillars. My caterpillars were hairy and since they did not have "Tussocks" (I wasn't sure about the black things near the head), I went looking for Lasiocampidae larvae in inaturalist.org. I saw Streblote stupidum, but it wasn't an exact match. After considerably more searching, I couldn't come up with an exact match. So, then I wondered if my caterpillars could belong to the Genus Streblote since S. stupidum was very close to being a match. I asked Google about the distribution of the Genus Streblote and that led me to https://www.biotaxa.org/em/article/view/...... - this was a scientific paper which confirmed that the species Streblote castanea was the sp. in Philippines and went on to detail that it was present on the following islands:- Cebu, Luzon. Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Palawan, Panay and Samar. Now, I was pretty much all set to identify my caterpillars as the larvae of S. castanea. Just one more step was required to give me the evidence I needed. I had to find out if there was more than one Streblote sp. in the Philippines. My luck was in, a quick visit to Philippine Lepidoptera soon confirmed that they had only four specimens displayed under the name Streblote castanea and no other spp. from the Genus Streblote. Of course, that does not mean that are no other Streblote spp. in the Philippines, it just means that PhiLep doesn't have any others, but since they are the foremost site in this field, I can feel pretty secure in calling these larvae Streblote castanea. However, please see Notes below.

Habitat:

My wife spotted several caterpillars in our backyard, this afternoon, and pointed them out to me. They were on a Ben Oil Tree (Moringa oleifera) locally called Malungay. Plant identification - http://www.stuartxchange.org/Malunggay.h...

Notes:

I always find it easier to identify adult moths and very often get completely stuck when dealing with larvae. To ensure that I have got the ID of this one right, or to help correct my spotting if it is wrong, I collected 4 of the larvae from the tree in our backyard and put them into a home made captive rearing cage. I will ensure that they have plenty of fresh leaves every day (and clean out the inevitable frass). Hopefully, in two or three weeks, I will have a successful outcome and then I can release them back into their habitat, our backyard.