Hi Barbara
It’s actually the White-stemmed Gum Moth Chelepteryx collesi
(rather than wattle moth)
http://www.csiro.au/Outcomes/Environment/Biodiversity/white-stemmed-gum-moths.aspx
There seem to be quite a few of them about this season. I remember them well as a kid growing up in Sydney and inadvertently putting my hand on the cocoons
while climbing trees – a very unpleasant experience and takes ages to get all the spines out!
Harvey
From: Barbara Preston [
Sent: Friday, 30 January 2015 1:59 PM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] caterpillar and OPEN GARDEN this weekend
This is mostly off topic – so apologies, but I hope someone can help me.
* The large caterpillar building a cocoon (photos from 5 pm to 11.40 am the next day) looks to me like that of the White-stemmed Wattle Moth (Chelepteryx Chalepteryx), but I will
be grateful for confirmation or alternative advice. We have several of these cocoons (two from last year, three recent) but do not have nearby what is specified in my books as feed (bipinnate wattle, pines, cherry ballart, & sour bush) - one cocoon was in
a wisteria growing along a first floor facia, and most of the others have been in the carport (within a couple of metres of the one photographed), where trees/shrubs nearby include the wisteria, pittosporum (James Sterling), hakea, melaleuca, correas and camellias
... There have also been the caterpillars elsewhere in the garden from time to time. BTW – my skin was pierced by dozens of the fine black spines from the one on the wisteria, but I had no reaction at all, though my skin is usually sensitive to any irritant.
(I have additional photos of the sequence of the caterpillar making the cocoon – I can send them to anyone interested)
I am interested especially about the cocoons because they are just beside where the entry table will be for our open garden this weekend, so people are sure to ask ..
* I will attach in a following message a notice for our open garden (10.00 to 4.30 pm, 31 January – 1 February, 21 Boobialla Street O’Connor). It’s open as part of the very last
season of Open Gardens Australia. Funds raised are for Amnesty International, and Austrian sculptor, Andreas Buisman is discretely turning some of our basalt columns into works of human as well as nature’s art ... Do come along!
Barbara Preston
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Barbara Preston Research | ABN 18 142 854 599
21 Boobialla Street | O’Connor ACT 2602 | Australia
T: 02 6247 8919 | M: 0439 47 8919
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www.barbaraprestonresearch.com.au
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