ENNOMINAE , GEOMETRIDAE
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 29 September 2007)
first instar
(Photo: courtesy of Merlin Crossley)
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(updated 29 September 2007)
first instar
(Photo: courtesy of Merlin Crossley)
This Caterpillar is black with a pattern of fine parallel white lines, a thin orange mid-dorsal line, two yellow lines along each side, and with a conspicuous red dot above its only pair of ventral prolegs. Its true legs are also red. Its head capsule and anal segment are blue-green speckled with black. It rests characteristically amongst the yellow flowers of its foodplant, sitting on its last pairs of legs, with its other prolegs folded into the body. It grows to a length of about 4 cms.
It has been found feeding on the flowers especially of:
If harassed, the Caterpillar drops on a silk thread. When the apparent danger is past, it laboriously climbs the thread to regain its original position. How a Caterpillar climbs up its thread has, to our knowledge, not been documented before. We were fortunate in observing one of these Caterpillars doing this. Firstly, it threw its head backwards, and grasped the thread as high as it could with its front legs.
It then straightened up, rolling the spare thread into a ball with its other true legs as it did so.
It pupates in a loose cocoon in the leaf debris. The pupal stage lasts about nine months.
The adult varies in colour from brown to grey. The fore wings have a brown or black and white pattern, and a darker line which runs from the base to the apex, curving away from the costa. These markings vary in distinctness between specimens. The hind wings are unmarked. The moth has a wingspan of about 5 cms.
The Caterpillars are fairly common in Melbourne in September and October. The genus has been the subject of research by David Britton.
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