| Urticating Anthelid (one synonym: Laelia australasiae Herrich-Schäffer, [1855]) ANTHELINAE, ANTHELIDAE, BOMBYCOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
David Akers,
Won Wron, Victoria)
|
| Urticating Anthelid (one synonym: Laelia australasiae Herrich-Schäffer, [1855]) ANTHELINAE, ANTHELIDAE, BOMBYCOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
David Akers,
Won Wron, Victoria)
This is a hairy Caterpillar. Early instars have grey hair over the abdomen, ginger hair on the thorax, and two long white hair pencils on the back of the first abdominal segment.
Later instars have dark brown hair all over the body except between each pair of segments where there is black skin and a ring of long white hairs.
The hairs are very sharp, thin and brittle. They easily penetrate the skin and break off. This can cause urticaria in people with sensitive skin.
The caterpillar looks like it has a yellow and pink nose.
The caterpillar feeds on various Wattles (Acacia, MIMOSACEAE), especially :
although it will also feed on plants from other families, such as:
The female caterpillar grows to a length of about 8 cms. The male grows only to about 5 cms.
The caterpillars make a grey or brown cocoon in some handy spot. The caterpillar pokes its hairs through the cocoon wall before pupating inside, giving the cocoon a furry appearance, although the hairs were just as thin and brittle as when they were on the caterpillar.
The adult moths vary in colour from grey to brownish-orange, with a number of zig-zag lines running parallel to the margin of each wing, and two small white spots outlined in black on each forewing.
The male is smaller and has feathery antennae, whereas the female has forewings with more pointed tips, and has filamentous antennae. Male moths have a wing span of about 7 cms. Females have a wing span up to about 10 cms.
The species has been found in:
Underside, Male
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Whittlesea, Victoria)
Further reading :
Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval,
Faune Entomologique de L'Ocean Pacifique,
Voyage de Decouvertes de la Corvette l'Astrolabe,
Division 7, Part 1 : Lepidopteres (1832), pp. 226-227.
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 13.5, pp. 70, 394.
Pat and Mike Coupar,
Flying Colours,
New South Wales University Press, Sydney 1992, p. 26.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 1,
Silk Moths and Allies - BOMBYCOIDEA,
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2008, pp. 16-17, 20-21.
Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 156.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 19 September 2011, 14 July 2023)