Caterpillars and the Biology of Australian Lepidoptera

Time 2020-10-12 22:07:54

Web Name: Caterpillars and the Biology of Australian Lepidoptera

WebSite: http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au

ID:79892

Keywords:

the,and,Caterpillars,

Description:

An old Arabic folktale tells how a man standing one night by a riveris bored and starts throwing pebbles in the water. Just as dawn breaks,he picks up the last pebble and as he throws it: he briefly looks at it.As it flies through the air, he realises that it was a jewel. A bag of jewels had been spilt on the river-bank, and through ignorance he had thrown them all away*.We have a similar problem with butterflies and modern society.We are destroying their foodplants and their habitat.If our grandchildren and future generations are to enjoy the wondrous nature of butterflies:we need to allow Caterpillars to coexist with us in our society.Caterpillars are the immature stages of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera).At a recent count, Australia was home to 5 families of butterflies (containing about 400 named species), and about 100 families of moths (containing over 10,000 named species,with probably as many moth species again yet to be described). Many of the Australian moths and butterflies are very beautiful, and many of their caterpillars are even prettier and more interesting than the their adult forms.Caterpillars are also very tame and easy to catch, and so make delightful house pets.Most Australian Lepidoptera taxonomy and identification has been performed ondead adult moths sent back to the British Museum in Londonfrom Australia by the early explorers.Meanwhile: most professional entomologists in Australia are employed tostudy the control of the few species that are pests.So for instance: there is no information at all on the shapes, colours, and behaviour of the caterpillars of 90% of Australian moths.So even amateurs can help discover these things bycollecting, photographing and rearing in captivityany caterpillars that they find in Australia.Preserving caterpillars poses difficult problems.This makes the identification of caterpillars difficult.So: of the limited number of Australian Lepidoptera that haveknown caterpillars: only a small number have been photographed,and still fewer of such photos are on the web.In an attempt to improve this situation: we have created these webpageswith all the pictures and links we can find about caterpillars that occur in Australia.The pictures come from ourselves and many colleagues, from a wide variety of sources, and are of very varied quality.We are still adding more pictures,so watch the counts at the head of this webpage. see a brief GLOSSARY of entomological termsCaterpillars from several species in the family SPHINGIDAE can open false eyes, likeTheretra latreilliiand some caterpillars in CALPINAE even have false teeth, likePhyllodes imperialisCaterpillars from the families like TORTRICIDAEcan move backwards faster than they can move forwards.Some Caterpillars from species in the familyLIMACODIDAEsting, with pockets of stinging spines that they evert when they feel threatened, such as Anaxidia lozogramma, LIMACODIDAECaterpillars from many species, such as those in the subfamily Daneinaefeed on poisonous plants, and accumulate the poisons in their body making them poisonous to predators like birds.Caterpillars of species in the family PAPILIONIDAE when threatened evert a pair of horns from behind the head,but which are entirely harmless,Papilio aegeus, PAPILIONIDAE Whilst most species of caterpillars feed on leaves, some burrow into the soil feeding on roots, some bore into trees eating the wood, and caterpillars of some moths like Scatochresis episemafeed on Koala droppings.The female moths of Australian species such asTeia anartoideshave no wings, and the species disperses by the young Caterpillars making an open gossamer sail out of silk, and sailing away on it in the wind.Link to More Caterpillar Facts.The fauna and the flora of Australia are very different from those in the rest of the world, and this is just as true of the Caterpillarsas it is of the better known Marsupials. With the short history ofEuropean influence in Australia and only a small human population,only a limited amount of work has been done on naming andidentifying the various species.Of course, the Australian Aborigines knew a great deal aboutAustralian Lepidoptera, and they usedseveral species as sources of food, for example:The scientific name for a Caterpillar is Larva (pluralLarvae). This name was taken from the Latin wordLarva meaning amongst other things 'Mask',because Caterpillars could be thought of as masking the butterflies and moths which they become. see scientific name index here pretty boring but useful if seeking information on a species for which you know even only a part of the scientific nameCaterpillars have several thousand muscles and have no skeleton.So by extending or contracting appropriate muscles: caterpillars can change their apparent length by plus or minus 25%.The wingspan of the adult imago is approximately equal to the maximum length to which the caterpillar grows. Depending on the weather, availability of food, and genetic variability: caterpillar maximum sizes can also vary by plus or minus 25%.Thus the measurements given in these webpages for various speciesof moths and butterflies are also implicitly subject to this degree of variability.The wingspans given in 19th century descriptions aresometimes listed in 'lines' or its abbreviation " (double quote).A line is 1/12th of an inch, approximately equal to 2 mms.By the term 'wingspan' in these webpages is meant the distance between left and right forewing tipsof a specimen with the wings set so that the hind margins of the forewings are at right angles to the axis of the body.Note: that we have adopted three unconventional conventionsin an attempt to make these webpages more understandable to non-entomologists:1. all scientific names are in italics,2. all taxonomical levels above genus (such as family, order, class)are in capitals, and3. all our pictures have the head to the left,although that has required a left-right reflection of some of the photos.We have generally followed the nomenclature and taxonomic divisions as used in the erudite text :Checklist of the Lepidoptera of AustraliaNielsen E.S., Edwards E.D. & Rangsi T.V. (Eds)(529pp + CDROM, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 1996)These webpages would not be so extensive but for the help of many friendsand colleagues, whom we feature on our specialWe have a separate webpage for each species,and links to these are available from a webpage for each familyas a thumbnail picture and a highlighted name.The families are also linked from one webpage forthe moths and one forthe butterflies.We have included lots of pictures of the adult butterflies andmoths also, even if we had no caterpillar pictures for those species.In these cases, our thumbnail pictures show only an adult.For some species we have found no pictures at all, but only somedescriptive text. In these cases, we show only a bullet by the name, and the name is highlighted as the link.Some species have been illustrated onAustralian postage stamps,and some more widespread species ofAustralian butterflies andAustralian mothshave appeared on overseas stamps.Many caterpillars are very fussy eaters, and eat only a very restricted range of plants or foodstuffs.We have tried to include links for the known food sources of the various caterpillars.However, we only list those that we have observed, those we have been told about by other observers, and those reported in the literature.In principle, the caterpillars might feed on anything when nobody is looking.

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