Yellow furball

[Painted Jezebel]

Found this large (6cm. long) yellow cat on a nearby tree. Any idea of ID please.

[hkmoths]

pretty short odds on this being

Calliteara horsfieldii

Lymantriidae.

cheers, Roger.

[Painted Jezebel]

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]

Sorry. parasitised! Here is the offending xxxx!

[Sky Blue]

I wonder how the fly can parasite this cat with heavy fur

[Painted Jezebel]

I wonder how the fly can parasite this cat with heavy fur

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]

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

[vespa_bicolor]

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]

This looks like the same species to me. On the HOSTS database, you'll find this is quite a catholic species in terms of host plant choices.

cheers, Roger.

[vespa_bicolor]

Thanks Roger!

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