Mnesampela privata
Autumn Gum Moth at Isaacs, ACT
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| Mnesampela privata | MichaelMulvaney | 30 Mar 2023 | |
| Mnesampela privata | RogerF | 17 Mar 2023 | |
| Unverified | Mike | 16 Mar 2023 |
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9 comments
17 Mar 2023
I never saw the eggs being laid. In fact, I didn't see the eggs until I brought the leaves home to feed some beetle larvae. The eggs have not hatched yet (I have had them four days).
17 Mar 2023
So at this stage, we have evidence that they are even animal? There are plants that grow nodules on their leaves that appear to be simulated eggs, apparently to deter real moths from laying real eggs on them.
30 Mar 2023
I studied M. privata in the 80's when there were massive outbreaks on eucs with glacous juvenile ro adult foliage, such as the Argyle Apple, and egs masses were present on leaves everywhere in autumn. Pictures published in leaflet No 1 by CSIRO 1991. It woud be easy to find the eggs next month on juvenile foliage of eucs like rubida, bridgesiana and macarthuri.
8 May 2025
Larvae never hatched from eggs. However, I have checked after seeing similar photo in Horne and Crawford "Backyard Insects", and found that tiny wasps had emerged, https://canberra.naturemapr.org/sightings/4667704.
Location information
- Places Isaacs, ACT
Sighting information
- 16 - 100 Abundance
- Mike Recorded by
- Less than 5mm Animal size
- Eggs Breeding behaviour
Collections
- Raising insects Mike NatureMapr Canberra & Southern Tablelands Mnesampela privata Geometer moths (Geometridae) Moths (Lepidoptera) Insects
Species information
- Mnesampela privata Scientific name
- Autumn Gum Moth Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1301.8m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
5 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- GPS evidence of location
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- Description