Record: mystery case moths
During a recent trip to Molonglo Gorge (ACT), I spotted three caterpillars with cases made from sticky everlasting petals. The usually helpful iNat auto-identifier wasn't able to shed much light, so after a little bit of internet research it seems they are an undescribed species of case moth.
The internet revealed several case moth species:
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/psyc/psyc-cats.html
In particular undetermined species BB, which has similar petal cases and was found nearby, but the source flowers were different: http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/psyc/psychbb.html
I've exchanged a few emails with the Don Herbison-Evans from that website, and he advised that they could be Psychidae or Tineoidea, so he's suggested rearing a specimen in captivity to see what pops out, which sounds like a fun science experiment, so I'll be heading back to Molonglo Gorge to see if we can find any...and then see what happens...!
Stay tuned.
評論
That psychbb has since been identified as a Heliocosma species, like
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/helc/argyroleuca.html
Did you succeed in rearing one?
A new unknown psychid has since been put in psychbb !
Thanks for the update Don @donhe ! I didn't end up attempting to rear one, as I live in an apartment and couldn't work out a way to ensure the sticky everlasting plants could stay alive sufficiently, but mine have a lot of similarities with the H. species at your link. Cheers
新增評論