JIMENA We received these photos (click for fabulous close-up, more below) from our good friend Phil Heinzl, with the comment, or question: "Here are some photos of a moth and its eggs. It turned up in my garden in the form of a pupae on my palm tree. I removed it to preserve it from the tree needing to be destroyed. It hatched out and started to lay eggs without first mating. The question is: Does any of your readers have any idea of its species and should I be promoting or demoting it ?" We have forwarded them to one of Britain's foremost experts on moths, and await his reply. In the meantime, Phil, just keep an eye on it. (Prospero comment: Fantastic close-ups! A comment from a specialist on dragon-flies who just happened to come by the office as we were looking at them (true, promise!): That's some camera! We retorted that we knew Phil's camera and it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but we did recommend his eye.)
2 comments:
Andrés Guerrero has identified this moth as the Streblote panda Hübner (1820) (Lepidoptera, Lasiocampidae),
Hey...what a mouthful! Thanks to Andrés I have found out that the more common name is the Lappet moth and this one is a flightless female, which sometimes occurs after the third generation. Sad to say it popped its clogs yesterday after laying its eggs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL-v-XTzKU0&feature=player_embedded#at=75
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