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Anestia sp.
An oval-shaped ?cocoon about 30mm x 15mm x 15mm. It had what looked like a fine silky matrix with fine black bristles tucked through in a random fashion. The centre of this cocoon appeared thicker and probably contained the pupal remains of the female moth. The entire outside of the cocoon had a single layer of small pearly bubbles of various shapes - some looked biconcave. Some of these little bubbles appeared to have a brown speck inside them. On the outside of the cocoon and on the lower side was the wingless female moth that had laid the eggs ( pic 4).
The cocoon was between two weather boards.
I am hoping to catch any development within the cocoon or changes in the structure - will post more pictures soon, hopefully.
If anyone knows what this is or has seen anything similar, please let me know. Thanks.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/868... shows changes to the cocoon and caterpillars that emerged.....
Family: Arctiidae
Have got the right ID for this after 3 years. Thanks to my husband. The wingless female Footman Moths or Lichen Moths of the Anestia genus appear to make these hair cocoons and lay their eggs on top of them. They remain beside the cocoon after this apparently arduous task. Here are links to 2 species of this moth.
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au...
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au...
Spotted on Jan 27, 2012
Submitted on Jan 27, 2012
8 Comments
interesting indeed......
Hmm... mine just turned into an Arctiidae.
Thanks for your help with the red berry bush, Martin. Have put it up as Caprosma sp.
Look fwd to your hatchlings pics :0 Check my latest spider spotting where I've linked your unknown red berry bush.
Here is my second spotting that I forgot was on PN. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/789... After you've got some nice pics, I would carefully tear it off the wall and pin it onto a protected branch. Never use sticky tape=( I've always seen them only on wattle, but who knows? I's better odds than mother nature provides. There will be a high predation rate. The original caterpillar will have crawled or fallen from a nearby tree to her pupating spot so your nearest large native is the probable food source.
Thanks for the information Martin. I am hoping to observe them as they develop. What are they going to feed on whilst against a weatherboard wall? - should I try to move them to a wattle - we have a black wattle in the garden ?
I will be posting today's photos of the hatched caterpillar.
The creature below is the wingless female who has laid all the eggs. This is a tussock moth and while not all female tussucks are wingless, this makes them a bizarre group indeed. I have bred some tussocks out here http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/799... and here http://www.flickr.com/photos/66925960@N0... There's other hatching spottings on PN that ive seen.
A cage that seems to be strengthened with hairs, eggs all over the frame and a cache of other wrapped creatures inside and below. What an interesting nest.