Clouded Footman Caterpillar | Clouded Footman Male Pupa | |||||
Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||
Order: | Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera) | ||||
Family: | Tiger Moth (:Noctuoidea Erebidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
Species: | Clouded Footman (Anestia ombrophanes) | ||||
This Photo: | Male Pupa, new | ||||
Thank you Prof Victor W Fazio III, Dee Petersen & Dion Maple for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills, the Flinders Ranges, Coastal Areas and elsewhere Flightless Female is ~5mm long, 0mm wingspan. Males have a wingspan ~25mm. Males are While the male moth is rather drab with his wings closed, the interest starts to peak when you see his wings open; such an orange flash. The caterpillars feed on lichen. Then to discover that both male & female caterpillars make their cocoon out of their own hair. They then pupate inside this and their gender can be determined at this early stage. The female is an incredible array of pink, black & white AND she doesn't have any wings when she emerges. She waits for a male to fly to her. They mate and then she deposits her eggs on the hairs of her cocoon. She then spends the rest of her short life (~2 weeks) tending to her eggs. What an interesting species! A more technical term for wingless insects is "Apterous". It's hard to know if shes wingless, or has reduced wings, which would make her "Brachypterous". | |||||
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