Insects
Moths (Lepidoptera)
Other moths
Sighting 4190500

Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE

caterpillar or pupa or cocoon at Hawker, ACT

Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE at Hawker, ACT - 23 Jan 2019 12:11 PM
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Identification history

Lepidoptera unclassified IMMATURE 7 Jan 2020 GlennCocking
Unverified 18 Aug 2019 MichaelMulvaney
Heterocera species 18 Aug 2019 donhe
Tortricinae (subfamily) 17 Aug 2019 MichaelMulvaney
Unverified 26 Jan 2019 AlisonMilton

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User's notes

This caterpillar curled itself into a leaf. A 'finished' cocoon was on the next branch (photo 5).

18 comments

RogerF wrote:
   26 Jan 2019
Can you keep the cocoon to see what emerges please
AlisonMilton wrote:
   27 Jan 2019
Okay, I'll go back up and collect one of them.
KimPullen wrote:
   27 Jan 2019
Alison, I think this is a moth rather than a beetle. What is the host plant?
AlisonMilton wrote:
   27 Jan 2019
The host plant was a young Eucalypt. I was thinking about the many Eucalypt beetles I've been finding. I'll collect a cocoon and see what hatches.
RogerF wrote:
   27 Jan 2019
most eucalypt beetles pupate in the ground
donhe wrote:
   18 Aug 2019
Many species in Oecophoridae and Crambidae, as well as Tortricidae, have caterpillars that live in rolled-leaf shelters. I can see little hope of even determining the family without getting a moth from it.
donhe wrote:
   18 Aug 2019
Roger: are there Coleoptera larvae that roll leaves to form a shelter like this?
AlisonMilton wrote:
   18 Aug 2019
Thanks. I didn't manage to get back for quite a while and when I did I couldn't find any rolled leaves. Maybe next season?
RogerF wrote:
   18 Aug 2019
There are leaf rolling weevils in the family Attelabidae such as Euops spp. The most notable example being the giraffe weevil from Madagascar.
donhe wrote:
   18 Aug 2019
I thought it was the adults of Euops and Trachelophorus weevils that rolled the leaves, not the larvae?
Alison's photos I think show the unknown larva rolling the leaf.
RogerF wrote:
   18 Aug 2019
The female weevil rolls the leaf and lays an egg inside where the larva develops, as shown in Alision's photo. The image does not look like a weevil larva but is more likely a moth larva.
AlisonMilton wrote:
   18 Aug 2019
In this case the larva actually curled the leaf as I watched. It didn't hatch in the leaf.
donhe wrote:
   19 Aug 2019
The caterpillars of all the Australian butterfly species are well known, and this is not one of them, so it appears to be an undetermined moth species of one of the several suborders: Tortricoidea or Pyraloidea or Gelechioidea, which with other suborders of moths are loosely classed together as Heterocera.
GlennCocking wrote:
   7 Jan 2020
Since the above discussion, we've created a place for unidentified immatures, so I've moved the record there. It's likely to be Tortricidae.
RogerF wrote:
   8 Jan 2020
I don't want to labour the point, but most Tortricid larvae that I have seen in the field tie the terminal leaves of the host plant together with silk rather than roll them. Ian Common 1990 states "The larvae are concealed feeders in spun shoots or rolled, folded or conjoined living or dead leaves" but I could not find any examples of leaf rolling in the chapter on Tortricids.
AlisonMilton wrote:
   8 Jan 2020
It's coming up to the time of year I found this larvae so will try to go back in a few days to see if they are present again this year, and if so, bring one home.
GlennCocking wrote:
   8 Jan 2020
If there are a few there, we could think about watching them till we can collect a pupa.
AlisonMilton wrote:
   8 Jan 2020
Thanks Glenn, I'll let you know.

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