Ochrogaster lunifer, the bag-shelter moth or processionary caterpillar, is a member of the family Notodontidae. The species was first described by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer in 1855. Both the larval and adult forms have hairs that cause irritation of the skin (urticaria). The adult moth has a woolly appearance and its wings can grow to be about 5.5 cm across. The larvae feed on Grevillea striata at night and reside in brown silken bag nests during the day.
Ochrogaster lunifer, the bag-shelter moth or processionary caterpillar, is a member of the family Notodontidae. The species was first described by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer in 1855. Both the larval and adult forms have hairs that cause irritation of the skin (urticaria). The adult moth has a woolly appearance and its wings can grow to be about 5.5 cm across. The larvae feed on Grevillea striata at night and reside in brown silken bag nests during the day.
==Biology== Ochrogaster lunifer has a one-year lifecycle, living communally with siblings and conspecifics from egg to pre-pupa. In October to November (Spring), adult moths emerge from the pupae underground, mate and the females lay an egg mass containing 150–550 eggs on the trunk or in the canopy of a host tree. Host trees include species of wattles and eucalypts. The eggs hatch after approximately 3–4 weeks. The caterpillars moult 7 times giving 8 instars which develop from December to May (Summer-Autumn). First instars do not feed and stay within the protection of the egg mass, other early instars feed on leaves in their host tree during the day and later instars feed at night. Throughout their development, the caterpillars construct a nest made of silk which fills with old caterpillar skins and frass. The nest grows larger as the caterpillars become larger. From the 3rd – 8th instar, caterpillars bear urticating setae (microscopic barbed hairs) on their abdominal segments producing more at each moult. The final 8th instar caterpillar carries more than two million setae which cause skin irritations and rashes in humans and other mammals. In April to May (Autumn), the 8th instar caterpillars leave the nest permanently in search for a pupation site where they over-winter underground as a pre-pupa. When the caterpillars leave the nest to feed or over-winter, they form a characteristic single-file procession hence the common name of ‘processionary caterpillars’. The caterpillar over-winters underground from May to October, then spins a cocoon and forms a puparium between September and November (Spring). After 2 – 4 weeks, the adult moth emerges from the pupa and uses its forelegs to tunnel from under the ground. The adults have non-functional mouthparts and do not feed throughout their short-lived adult life.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).