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Painted Jezebel
19-Jan-2008, 09:41 AM
Found this large (6cm. long) yellow cat on a nearby tree. Any idea of ID please.

hkmoths
19-Jan-2008, 11:37 PM
pretty short odds on this being

Calliteara horsfieldii

Lymantriidae.

cheers, Roger.

Painted Jezebel
20-Jan-2008, 09:33 AM
Thank you Roger. Even at short odds,I'd put money on it! The description in Moths of Borneo, Vol 5, is exactly right. Currently it is spinning its cocoon (again in a very inaccessable position!).

Painted Jezebel
28-Jan-2008, 11:22 AM
Sorry. parasitised! Here is the offending xxxx!

Sky Blue
28-Jan-2008, 11:43 PM
I wonder how the fly can parasite this cat with heavy fur :thinking:

Painted Jezebel
29-Jan-2008, 12:19 AM
I wonder how the fly can parasite this cat with heavy fur :thinking:

Just a suggestion, but I guess that the earlier instars have much shorter hairs, and it was during one of these when the cat was attacked.

atronox
09-Mar-2008, 01:59 AM
Certain books say that other insects as well as spiders are unaffected by those hairs.

vespa_bicolor
05-Apr-2008, 11:43 PM
Any chance of this being the same? Found it feeding on Hibiscus tiliaceus (sea hibiscus) and decided to try rearing it since I can confirm the hostplant. The photo was badly underexposed but the colour matches the photo at the top of the page. It was only 2.5 cm or so when the photo was taken but jumped to nearly 4cm after it moulted.


Certain books say that other insects as well as spiders are unaffected by those hairs.

I've seen paper wasps rip off those hairs carefully with their mandibles before attacking the caterpillar and reducing it into a meatball as easily as any normal prey!

hkmoths
06-Apr-2008, 11:25 AM
This looks like the same species to me. On the HOSTS (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/hostplants/)database, you'll find this is quite a catholic species in terms of host plant choices.

cheers, Roger.

vespa_bicolor
08-Apr-2008, 02:40 PM
Thanks Roger!

Indeed I got quite a shock at the length of the list of known hostplants.