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Order Lepidoptera
- This page contains pictures and information about Cup Moths and
Caterpillars in family Limacodidae that we found in the Brisbane
area, Queensland, Australia.
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- Cup moth adults have scout and furry bodies with board
wings. They are medium in size. They are usually yellow to brown in colours.
They have smooth head and maxillary palps short or absent. The antenna are
half of the body length and held antenna back along edge of wings when rest.
Males have short bipectinate antenna, dentate or filiform in female. They are
mostly nocturnal although some are thought to be diurnal. They fly
rapidly and erratically.
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 - Cup
cocoon
Caterpillars, two different species
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- The
moths of this family are named 'Cup Moths' because the shape of their pupal cocoon look like a
cup. Their cocoons usually have the wooden round shape, attached to a twig or
bark of
the food plants. The cocoon look like the fruit of the gum tree on the
leaves which they feed.
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- Caterpillars in this family show their stinging
hairs when disturbed. Late-instars caterpillars usually have the bright warning colours.
The head is hide under thorax. Their
sting will give a painful nettle-like sting and burning feeling. They also known as Spitfires.
They are slug-like, walk like a
slug for they do not have prolegs
and all their true legs are reduced. They feed openly on leaves during the day.
They feed on a variety of plants. Most of them, such as those Doratifera species,
feed on gum leaves.
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- Wattle Cup
Caterpillar
  - Calcarifera ordinata, body length 30mm,
10mm
- We sometimes find this caterpillar on wattle leaves. The caterpillar is
bright yellow with blue green and orange colours. There are a number of
tubercles around its body. More information can be found in this
page.
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Genus Doratifera
- All Doratifera sp. caterpillars feed on Eucalyptus and
sometimes on Lophostemon or Angophora.
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- Mottled Cup Moth, Chinese Junk
 
 - Doratifera vulnerans, caterpillar length 20mm, cup diameter 10mm, adult wing span 30mm
- Mottled Cup Moth caterpillars are pale brown in colour with the bright warning
colours white, pink and yellow in the middle. They show their stinging hairs
when disturbed. The adult moths are mottled brown in colour with hairy thorax.
More information and pictures please click here.
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- Black Slug
Cup Moth
 
 - Doratifera casta, body length 25mm, cup
diameter 10mm, adult wing span 30mm
- The caterpillar was found on blade grass in Macgregor Bushland during mod
summer. Few days later, the caterpillar pupated on the side of the glass jar. The
pupa was brown in colour. The second picture shows the moth came out from the
pupa after two weeks. More information and pictures please click here.
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- Four-spotted
Cup Moth
  - Doratifera quadriguttata, body length 30mm, adult wing span 30mm
- We found some Four-spotted Cup Moth caterpillars in Alexandra Hill during
mid summer. They were feeding openly on young gum tree leaves during the day.
We took a few of them home to watch their grow. We also took some branches of
gum leaves as their food. The caterpillar turned into pupa then adult moth.
Details are recorded here.
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- Green Slug Caterpillar
 
- Eloasa symphonistis, body length 10mm,
30mm
- We found this caterpillars in Alexandra Hill bushland. In mid-summer, they
are easily seen on Acacia leaves. They move very slowly. The Caterpillars are
green in colour with dome shaped.
The larger caterpillars have a number of faint pale lines running along its
body. They pupates in between leaves in a hard brown cocoon. The moth is
brown in colour. Please also visit this page for
more photos.
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- Fern Cup Moth
  - ? Hedraea quadridens, body length 30mm
- The Fern Cup Moth caterpillars are brightly green in colour, with dark
green and white lines along their body. Their body are full of stinging hairy
spikes, especially two pair at the front and two pair at the end. If contacted,
the infected area will be pain and itching, accompany with burning
feeling. We found this Fern Cup Moth caterpillar in Alexandra Hill along the creek
feeding on the young bracken fern Pteridium esculentum during mid summer.
More information and pictures please click here.
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- Reference:
- 1. LIMACODIDAE in Australia - Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley,
2009.
- 2. Moths
of Australia - I. F. B. Common, Melbourne University Press,
1990, p299.
- 3. A
Guide to Australian Moths - Paul Zborowski, Ted Edwards, CSIRO
PUBLISHING, 2007, p113.
- 4. Northern
Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009.
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- [ Up ] [ Wattle Cup caterpillar ] [ Mottled Cup Moth ] [ Black Slug Cup Moth ] [ Four-Spotted Cup Moth ] [ Green Slug Caterpillar ] [ Fern Cup Moth ]
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