The Wattle Cup caterpillar (Calcarifera ordinata) is a very poisonous insect. It has two spikes in the front and four in the back, and ones on each side of it. Poisonous means if a person were to touch those spikes, then venom would be injected into that body part causing severe pain. The wattle cup is a brightly coloured, greenish-yellow caterpillar with a red stripe on its back and a broad blue edging on each side of the stripe. Also, it has a blue band with red patches on each side of the caterpillar. This caterpillar grows to a size of 30mm, and when it turns into a moth, its wingspan is 3cm. Additionally, if someone were to cut this caterpillar in half, it would be the same on each side, so it has a bilateral symmetry.
Habitat
The Wattle Cup caterpillar lives in open woodland like a forest. It lives in Australia, but to be more specific it lives in northern Australia, western Australia, southern Australia, Queensland, New South Wale, and Northern Territory. People can also find them in orange trees getting food as well. Though people would probably find them mostly on wattle leaves, hence their name.
Diet …show more content…
They eat leaves from Date palms, Dogwood, Roses, Orange trees, Whitewood, various Wattles, and Ribbon pea plants. They also share a leaf and eat together after the eggs hatch, then they will start eating a whole leaf by themselves. Some caterpillars eat 27,000 times their weight during this larval phase before turning into an adult moth. They are herbivores, therefore they don’t have any prey. All though they do have predators. Young wasp and nesting birds only eat the caterpillar. While bats eat them when they are a moth. Some are other carnivorous insects. A carnivorous insect means that it eats other animals like
Habitat
The Wattle Cup caterpillar lives in open woodland like a forest. It lives in Australia, but to be more specific it lives in northern Australia, western Australia, southern Australia, Queensland, New South Wale, and Northern Territory. People can also find them in orange trees getting food as well. Though people would probably find them mostly on wattle leaves, hence their name.
Diet …show more content…
They eat leaves from Date palms, Dogwood, Roses, Orange trees, Whitewood, various Wattles, and Ribbon pea plants. They also share a leaf and eat together after the eggs hatch, then they will start eating a whole leaf by themselves. Some caterpillars eat 27,000 times their weight during this larval phase before turning into an adult moth. They are herbivores, therefore they don’t have any prey. All though they do have predators. Young wasp and nesting birds only eat the caterpillar. While bats eat them when they are a moth. Some are other carnivorous insects. A carnivorous insect means that it eats other animals like