Weird And Wonderful Wildlife

It was never the plan to have another blip about camouflage. But as I walked along Maleny's main shopping street this morning I spotted this strange creature moving along the pavement. If you look carefully you can see its head top left, poking out of its armour. Yes, it is a living creature! Australia is home to much weird and wonderful wildlife but this has to be up there with the weirdest and most cleverly camouflaged.

I gently moved it with the edge of my foot into a flowerbed for its own safety. If you want to know what this is, read on:-

Saunders' Case Moth, Metura elongatus.

Case moths spin their cases out of silk and most species attach leaves, twigs, sand or soil to the outside for protection and camouflage. There are a number of different species and each species builds a distinctive-looking case. However, as individual case moths use whatever materials are available to them, there can be considerable variation in the appearance of cases within a species.

The Saunders' Case Moth is one of the largest species of case moths in Australia - their cases can be as large as 15cm long. Individuals of this species cover their cases with little pieces of twigs. They poke the front end of their bodies out the top of their case to feed, collect case decorations, and cling to surfaces as they move about.

As they grow, Saunders' Case Moths expand their cases from the top (head) end, adding additional twigs as they go. They do this by cutting off appropriately-sized twigs, attaching them temporarily to the top of the case and then disappearing inside to cut a slit where they plan to attach the new stick. This is no mean feat. Case moth cocoons are incredibly tough; cutting a slit for a new stick can take over an hour!

Case moths spend most of their lives in the caterpillar phase; this part of their life cycle can last 1-2 years. As caterpillars, they never leave their cases. However, they can be very mobile, dragging their large cocoons along as they move around. The head and thorax of the caterpillars are quite heavily armoured and they have 3 strong pairs of legs on the thorax with which they move around, dragging the case behind them. If they feel threatened they can seal off the end of the cocoon, cutting a new opening once the threat has passed. The females continue to live in their cases after they've pupated into adult moths, but the males leave their cases after pupation to fly off in search of females.