Welcome to Mantid Microcosm, a blog created to record the amazing minibeast microcosm I have discovered in my garden.
I enjoy documenting the lives, behaviour and growth of the wildlife I find through words and photos and sharing with those who are interested.
At the end of last summer, I found some Mottled Cupmoth (Doratifera vulnerans) caterpillars on my Eucalyptus or gumtree. I brought them in and kept them inside to watch them develop and see their metamorphosis. This is the grey form but they vary in colour from green through to red but all have a pair of yellow and green saddle-like marks
on the back which often have a white arc at each end,
and a black outline. They can be found all over Australia feeding on trees in the Myrtaceae family.
Cupmoth caterpillar with spines everted.
Cupmoth caterpillar on branch with its spines erect after being disturbed.
Watching these caterpillars make their cocoon was fascinating and I did manage to document it quite well with photos and video.
Caterpillar preparing to pupate - it produces silken threads to tether itself to the branch.
Caterpillar formed into a ball
The basic cup shape has been formed.
Cup-shaped cocoon with what looks like white liquid inside.
Here is a 4 minute video I made of the cocoon construction which actually took all day. I sped up the video to show what happened in a shorter time.
That was about 9 months ago and recently the cupmoths have started to eclose. Unfortunately I have not observed the actual moment they emerged from the cocoon so haven't been able to take a video or photos to have as a record however I do have some photos of the moths anyway.
Here's the empty cocooon with the pupal case sticking out.
The empty pupal skin which I pulled out of a cocoon so I could see the shape of the skin. See the antenna shape?
Here is the moth hanging under the branch where its cocoon was attached.
The beautiful moth - I love the furry legs with white stripes and those pretty metallic wings.
Each moth has been released out into the garden and last night I put one out on the branch it was hanging on also. When I remembered to check the next day, expecting it to be gone like the others, there were two moths end to end on the twig. The one I put out must have been a female because she was attached to a smaller moth presumably the male. I guess she released the appropriate pheromone to attract a mate.
Cupmoths mating under the branch.
Now that it is night I see that he is left alone and she has probably flown off to lay her eggs. I wonder if they will be on my tree?
