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Caterpillar of an HOMODES BRACTEIGUTTA moth
I am excited to show you this amazing spotting I came across. Living in the same shrub as a colony of biting weaver red ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) is this spectacular weaver ant mimic caterpillar. It has the same colour as the red ants but is about twice the length of an adult weaver ant ~ 1.5cm. Its abdominal and thoracic prolegs are short. Its tentacles and setae are mobile and elongated, looking like the antennae and spindly legs of the weaver ant. ?new species? (Third picture uploaded is a pic of a weaver ant on the next leaf)
Tertiary jungle. Malaysia
EXCITED!!!
Spotted on Dec 31, 2016
Submitted on Dec 31, 2016
14 Comments
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_f...
I found one but not sure it same species? Can look picture and VIDEO on my facebook. Located Ko Kut Thailand. Thank you.
Thanks @DanielePralong & @leuba Ridgway!
I'm still on cloud nine with this spotting!
:P
What a fantastic find. Over here we have the species only in Queensland.
Thanks for your reply and for the reference! I'm as asking as we would like to feature this awesome spotting and I want to make sure we get this right. Many images available online for these caterpillars are only identified to genus level. See here for instance:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/homod...
In the reference you provided the authors actually had to rear the caterpillar to adult stage to confirm the exact species.
Hi @DanielePralong, this one is documented in this paper here http://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin201...
..Should be quite accurate. :)
Fantastic find FakawiTribe! Are you sure of the exact species or could it be a different species in the same genus?
Awesome!
Cheers, @Michael Strydom!
Wow!!! that is awesome. I had no idea caterpillars could ant mimic.....really cool!! Great Find!!
Thanks, @Jason Alexander!
This is cool!
Isn't she, Sukanya? Biomimicry at its best! The head and tail end both resemble an ant head. Safe from an ant confrontation from front and back!
FawakiTribe...thank you for posting this interesting species...I learnt something new today. Isn't nature marvellous!
WOOP! Found the name for this beauty!
Caterpillar of an Homodes sp. moth
it's an ant mimic caterpillar