It is not difficult to spot caterpillars feeding on the same plant as many species of them are known to live in colonies. However, seeing dozens of caterpillars resting on a tree trunk in the bright daylight is quite new to me.
I observed them for over 2 weeks and found that they came back to the same tree trunk and almost the same spot day after day.
Sometimes they even laid on top of each other.
In fact these caterpillars are the larvae of the Metanastria gemella (moth). Apparently, they feed at night and spend daytime resting on the tree trunk.
The teamwork leads to “safety in numbers” which provides a better chance of survival against predators.
To me, they created very pretty artistic patterns.
More images at Google+
11 comments:
Wonderful macro images of these
caterpillars.I have never seen such a large group of them.Very
interesting post.
Regards.
Fantastic moth. I have been looking at Google, and it is found Hong Kong. Beautiful images.
Wonderful macro images!!
Regards Irma
http://www.digi-irma.nl
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.
Mielenkiintoinen 'luonnon-ilmiö'.
Mainio kuvasarja.
En ole koskaan aikaisemmin nähnyt.
Kiitos vierailusta blogissani.
Kyllä meidän kevät on myöhässä kaksi-kolme viikkoa.
Kevään tulo-terveisin Eko
Suomi/Lapland/Kuusamo
There are similar communal type catterpillars in the Amazon rainforest that are known to be quite venomous to the touch.
I agree, the pattern is quite beautiful!
I bet they don't leave the tree trunk at all and move according to their need to to find food!
Great shots! :)
Very nice serie, pretty original ;)
a very interesting and very good photos to illustrate
regards
How interesting, and despite the safety in numbers they still look quite obvious to any predator just laid on the tree like that.
Very good. I see these groups too but didn't know it is for safety in numbers.
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