Record: mystery case moths
During a recent trip to Molonglo Gorge (ACT), I spotted three caterpillars with cases made from sticky everlasting petals. The usually helpful iNat auto-identifier wasn't able to shed much light, so after a little bit of internet research it seems they are an undescribed species of case moth.
The internet revealed several case moth species:
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/psyc/psyc-cats.html
In particular undetermined species BB, which has similar petal cases and was found nearby, but the source flowers were different: http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/psyc/psychbb.html
I've exchanged a few emails with the Don Herbison-Evans from that website, and he advised that they could be Psychidae or Tineoidea, so he's suggested rearing a specimen in captivity to see what pops out, which sounds like a fun science experiment, so I'll be heading back to Molonglo Gorge to see if we can find any...and then see what happens...!
Stay tuned.
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That psychbb has since been identified as a Heliocosma species, like
http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/helc/argyroleuca.html
Did you succeed in rearing one?
A new unknown psychid has since been put in psychbb !
Thanks for the update Don @donhe ! I didn't end up attempting to rear one, as I live in an apartment and couldn't work out a way to ensure the sticky everlasting plants could stay alive sufficiently, but mine have a lot of similarities with the H. species at your link. Cheers
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