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Adult flannel moths are stout-bodied, and very hairy. Females have thin antennae while males' are feather-like. Larvae are called puss caterpillars and, with their long hairs, resemble cotton balls. They are eaten by green lacewing insects and the Anolis lizards. They have venomous spines that can cause a painful sting and inflammation lasting ...
The female is slightly larger than the male in larva form, and as an adult finds a mate by extruding an organ that emits a pheromone which the male can smell. The male, which unlike the female has the large, feathered antennae characteristic of pheromone-using moths, flies zigzag search patterns, eventually homing in on a female.
Megalopyge opercularis is a moth of the family Megalopygidae.It has numerous common names, including southern flannel moth for its adult form, and puss caterpillar, asp, Italian asp, fire caterpillar, woolly slug, opossum bug, [3] puss moth, tree asp, asp caterpillar, and Donald Trump caterpillar [4] for its juvenile form.
The bright colours of both the larvae and the moths act as warning signs, so they are seldom eaten by predators. An exception is among different species of cuckoo which eat hairy and poisonous caterpillars including cinnabar moth larvae. [3] Females can lay up to 300 eggs, usually in batches of 30 to 60 on the underside of ragwort leaves.
Although they appear to be furry and soft, the caterpillars actually have a defense system of poisonous bristles that can break off into your skin if they are touched.
Caterpillars of many species can cause irritation by their hollow body hairs that envenom or detach easily, or can be poisonous if ingested. [5] Prior to investigations into Lonomia caterpillars, it was not known that caterpillars could produce toxins in sufficient quantities to kill a human.
As caterpillars, they tend to feed on a wide range of host plants. This includes oak, apple, birch, willow, hackberry, cherry and coniferous trees such as fir and spruce.
Gonimbrasia belina is a species of emperor moth which is native to the warmer parts of southern Africa.Its large edible caterpillar, known as the mopane worm, madora, amacimbi “pigeon moth”, masonja or Seboko sa Mongana, feeds primarily but not exclusively on mopane tree leaves.