Wildlife Wednesday - moth

When I was a kid, these were my favourite moths and I called them a Jaffa Moth. I spent hours trying to breed them because I wanted to see a cocoon hatch into a moth (I had visions of the chrysalis bursting open and a half damp moth struggling out before fluttering its wings, nodding to me and flying away). I haven't seen them for years and the other week I saw one. It took me right back to my excited childhood state.

So, let me see if I can be more adult about this and find out something more about these moths.

Wow...here's a page with some great photos. But this Brisbane one could be different to my more southern one.

Okay, so not a lot of information about these guys that I could find. This website seems to have a bit of info, including:

The Caterpillars of the CTENUCHINAE family are mostly covered uniformly in dark hairs. The hairs can cause Urticaria in sensitive people. The Caterpillars typically feed and move about during the daytime.They pupate in a cocoon made of silk with their hairs matted together. The adults are small to medium in size, with wings that are black with translucent orange spots. Their bodies typically have tranverse bands alternating in orange and black, hence their name 'Wasp Moths'. However the coloration does not denote any hazard except that the moths are poisonous if eaten.The adult moths of many species in this subfamily fly during daylight hours. There are 54 named Australian members of this subfamily.