#hand-raised

Successful Raising of Orthaga picta

What I find a little interesting about this caterpillar, is its strangely shaped frass... Not sure why it looks like that. I’ve seen a few leaf rollers produce frass in that same elongated shape.

Foodplant: Melicope rubra

Specimen: Orthaga picta

Some-what Accidental Raising of a Parasite

I collected a strange jellybean-like caterpillar from a Citrus tree. I noticed that it wasn’t moving, and thought it may be dead, but I kept it in captivity anyway to see what would happen.

A week or so later, an unidentified parasitic wasp emerged. The wasp chewed a whole through the caterpillar’s body, meaning it pupated inside the specimen. The caterpillar was indeed dead, but it was also carrying another life form.

Host: Unidentified, family Limacodidae

Parasite: Unidentified, superfamily Ichneumonoidea

Caterpillar first sighting - 19/02/23 Adult photos - 24/02/23 Empty caterpillar corpse - 24/02/23

I successfully raised a bagworm!

Lately I’ve had good luck with cocoon rearing. I’m certainly going to continue doing so going forward!.

This specimen may belong to the Amatissa genus. There doesn’t appear to be much information about Australian bagworm species, less so about the Amatissa genus. The lack of information is a further incentive for me to collect more cocoons.

Another example of a hatched specimen can be seen here.

Unidentified, Genus Amatissa

Foodplant: Rhododendron

𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄!

The specimen has yet to be identified by proper Entomologists, but Macaldenia palumba sounds right to me.

Macaldenia palumba (?), Erebinae

Foodplant: Citrus × limon

Tiny!

Definitely the smallest moth I’ve raised. When I first stumbled upon these cocoons, I erroneously thought they were made by Enispa caterpillars. Really, they’re clearly too small, and their cocoons are different shape.

This species appears to be in the Tineidae family, however I haven’t found any species that match yet. I’m interested to hear from any professional Entomologists as to what this specimen may be 🙏

Unidentified, family Tineidae

𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐅𝐔𝐋 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐑 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄!

Yet another successful raising, this time a bell moth! Uncertain about the species for this one, but I recon it’s either in the Anisogona or Homona genus.

Unidentified, Anisogona / Homona species, Tortricinae

Foodplant: Citrus species