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Thanks, Jon. Since it was over 3 years ago, I don't recall the size (I was just looking thru older pix and found it). Does the wider view help at all?

I have been under the impression that these are lunar moth cocoons. I have often seen them in KNP and this is what I was told.

But since your question, I have done some digging. I am now less convinced that it is a lunar moth or even some other saturniidae.

I am beginning to think that it may rather be a moth of the Lasiocampidae Family (Eggar moths, lappet moths). This type of cocoon forming is well known in that family and yes, they do utilize acacia as well.

I hope this link works!

See page 344 / 345.

Thanks Arks, but the first shot was as good as the second. Unfortunately the KNP is far out of my home ground, so I have very little feeling for their wild life. I think I have seen such cocoons worn as ornaments, but I cannot be sure that this exact type would be the one. You see, some of the likelier families are inclined to feed and pupate in groups.

I go along with Imberbe part way, even to the point of sharing his lines of thought. I too had been wondering about which Lasiocampids might occur in KNP:

But then again, could it not be some sort of Lymantriid?

In case it is either of those two families, be cautious about handling such a cocoon; they often (especially the Lymantriidae) have their silk interwoven with their stinging hairs, and in fact, if I were to see one close up I should begin (very gingerly) by inspecting the silk for stinging hairs, using a good lens!

Why not just keep the cocoon and see what comes out, you ask? Well yes, but actually although the Lasiocampidae and Lymantriidae are pretty prickly, they tend to be heavily attacked by parasitoidal flies and wasps, and those are the likeliest beasties to hatch out!

I saw the chrysillis in KTP not KNP — does that help? I've checked a bit further and it was in a tree in Grootkolk camp.

Sorry, but you make me feel increasingly inferior! I have only been out that way once, many years ago! Beautiful, but not very familiar!

Never!!!

Perhaps Imberbe will have something to add when he pops in again, but I know that he's also not very familiar with arid parks.

Perhaps I should now post it in Jannie's new ID thread under Arid Parks ....


Edit: I did post it in the Arid Parks "what is this" thread and you were both right about it. Here is Jannie's reply to my query there.

Another "insect-related" ID, this time two different caterillars seen in WCNP in October 2010.

[quote="arks"]Another "insect-related" ID, this time two different caterillars seen in WCNP in October 2010.

My apologies Arks, this is one of my humbler moments. The top woolly bear looks very much like a caterpillar of the
Arctiidae (Tiger moths). A lot of them look like that.

However, I don't know the other one; there really isn't much detail. It looks like a bad choice to handle without forceps, but it doesn't look very distinctive. It is pretty surely not a slug caterpillar (Limacodidae). It does not look to me like a Lasiocampid (they usually have conspicuous "whisker" bristles out front). Nor does it look much like a Lymantriid (the gypsy moth lot).
If someone told me it also was an Arctiid, I wouldn't argue, but really, I would be guessing.

Sorry 'bout that!

Cheers,

Jon

No apologies, Jon, all this is very interesting. I googled "Arctiidae" and there does seem to be a lot of variety, covering both the pix I posted. Plus I had no idea that there were also "woolly bear" caterpillars in SA. Ours in the northeast US usually have stripes of brown and black, and there's a bit of local folklore that the amount of black indicates the severity of the coming winter.

Thanks, as always, for your help!

Fascinating thread this. Thanks for discussing a topic few people care to talk about, but which is filled with interesting facts and ID's.

Hi Arks, only a pleasure of course, as far as it goes. Yes, one of the problems with larval forms is that one often gets huge variety within a family, and the more widespread the family the more varied as a rule, and Arctiidae are practically cosmopolitan.
However, beware of taking Google pics to seriously; do indeed use them heavily, but few of them are reliably labelled, and some of the labels reflect the occurrence of a word within the article instead of the content of the pic.
You see, the only "woolly bears" most people know are Arctiidae, so as far as they are concerned, anything with bristles are Arctiids! Some of the caterpillars confidently labelled Arctiidae, I would put money on to be Lymantriidae!

If you google images Lymantriidae caterpillars, one hit is at http://www.bukisa.com/articles/274587_t ... imals-ever (worth a look, even though there are still cuter animals everywhere!) But that is stated in the text (correctly, I reckon) to be Arctiidae. What they DON'T mention at that site is that their cute caterpillar is not for thoughtless handling!!!

However some of the first pics on the google images page could easily be confused with Lymantriids. Both Arctiids and Lymantriids often have the pretty "hair pencils" front and back. Lymantriids however, are likelier to have "collars of short, defensive sharp bristles across the backs of two or three of the front segments. When alarmed they evaginate them to present the bristles, which are usually of a contrasting colour. A typical specimen is at:
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Arthropod ... ckMoth.jpg
Later!
Jon

Thanks and welcome.
You will find that people that begin to use their cameras' macrophotography features tend to become hooked on the marvellous small things in their own gardens, and don't even about the dimensions it adds to game parks!!!,

Thanks Jon. Yes, I've been fascinated with insects - often in rest camps - for decades, but have often struggled with ID. Nevertheless, watching their behaviour and awed by some of those colours and shapes means I can spend ages watching insects in camp while others are watching birds. I think, perhaps, the first actions I need to IDing them are to recognise classes. That, in itself, will take months, if not years. But, the world of insects is an amazing one that few people take the time to understand. If they did, soapies would be on the decline.

Thanks for all the interesting additional info and links, Jon! That last pic is quite a scary looking critter! And I learned long ago never to touch those intriguing caterpillars, as so many have either nasty spines or other defensive mechanisms

Oookay! Technically Insecta are a Class and what one usually needs is an introduction to the Orders, for example, Silver-fish, mayflies, grasshoppers, mantids, bugs, moths, beetles, wasps etc. For some examples one needs to get down to families, such as mossies, horseflies, tiger beetles, scarabs, spider-hunter wasps and so on.

Then there are the local prominent individuals. The Picker book is particularly useful for familiarising yourself with insects in general and with SA insects in particular. However, I have a feeling that we need a book with collected line drawing pics for guidelines. As a boy I learned basic order recognition from little handbooks from the British museum: Instructions to collectors. Their line drawings were excellent. I must look into such matters.