Ant Mimic Caterpillar (Caterpillar of an HOMODES BRACTEIGUTTA moth)

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Photo by FakawiTribe

Published on Project Noah

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Field Notes

Description:

I am excited to show you this amazing spotting I came across. Living in the same shrub as a colony of biting weaver red ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) is this spectacular weaver ant mimic caterpillar.
It has the same colour as the red ants but is about twice the length of an adult weaver ant ~ 1.5cm.
Its abdominal and thoracic prolegs are short. Its tentacles and setae are mobile and elongated, looking like the antennae and spindly legs of the weaver ant.
?new species?
(Third picture uploaded is a pic of a weaver ant on the next leaf)

Habitat:

Tertiary jungle. Malaysia

Notes:

EXCITED!!!

Reference Links:

http://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2012/2012nis039-056.pdf

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (14)

ason2526

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158516478248012&id=667168011&comment_id=10158516550123012&notif_t=feed_comment&notif_id=1559980657057677&ref=m_notif I found one but not sure it same species? Can look picture and VIDEO on my facebook. Located Ko Kut Thailand. Thank you.

FakawiTribe

Thanks @DanielePralong & @leuba Ridgway! I'm still on cloud nine with this spotting! :P

Leuba Ridgway

What a fantastic find. Over here we have the species only in Queensland.

DanielePralong

Thanks for your reply and for the reference! I'm as asking as we would like to feature this awesome spotting and I want to make sure we get this right. Many images available online for these caterpillars are only identified to genus level. See here for instance: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/homodes/ In the reference you provided the authors actually had to rear the caterpillar to adult stage to confirm the exact species.

FakawiTribe

Hi @DanielePralong, this one is documented in this paper here http://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2012/2012nis039-056.pdf ..Should be quite accurate. :)

DanielePralong

Fantastic find FakawiTribe! Are you sure of the exact species or could it be a different species in the same genus?

Sergio Monteiro

Awesome!

FakawiTribe

Cheers, @Michael Strydom!

Michael Strydom

Wow!!! that is awesome. I had no idea caterpillars could ant mimic.....really cool!! Great Find!!

FakawiTribe

Thanks, @Jason Alexander!

Jason Alexander

This is cool!