What be this dragon?

Interesting to see the date on this, because we just found one of these inching its way across concrete in our carport. I’ve seen them a few times before, but never on the move. It was fascinating to watch!

I used a large piece of bark to relocate the monster to under the gum tree on our nature strip.

Blegh, too big for my liking! Bugs are best unseen…

s-s-a said:

Breda #10 its not a Sawfly larva aka “Spitfire” which is the swarming leaf-eating and much smaller grub that you are referring to from Sydney. My dad used to rid the trees in our yard of spitfire colonies with a flaming petrol-soaked rag on the end of a long stick.
——————————————————————
Thanks, s-s-a, you are right. The type of sawfly larvae we had locally was very similar in colouring to the beastie in PB’s photo, and was covered in little spikes. Probably because I was a child at the time, they did seem huge, but Professor Google tells me they were only about half to two thirds the size of PB’s monster.

I had forgotten they were called spitfires, but yes, they did spit an irritating liquid when annoyed. Not that anyone in their right mind would annoy a colony of a few hundred writhing, spiky, spitting grubs! I had heard of people tying hessian bags soaked in petrol over them and setting them alight, but it seems a bit OTT. We just left them well alone.

It’s a Labor Advisor (Slimius Bullshittus), in the larval stage of maturity.

No, no, no. It is a baby reptoid

Breda #10 its not a Sawfly larva aka “Spitfire” which is the swarming leaf-eating and much smaller grub that you are referring to from Sydney. My dad used to rid the trees in our yard of spitfire colonies with a flaming petrol-soaked rag on the end of a long stick.

Thanks PB and Rioters! Have seen one of these twice in the last 10y, both times near the massive gum on our neighbour’s nature strip. Most recent time was just before Xmas and I took a pic in anticipation of asking CSIRO… should have asked you lot!

I take it that the moth will emerge with an anti-collision beacon and nav lights…?

The real answer is thats a baby one. They grow to be 12″ long and as thick as your arm 🙂

Yeah, as above. I’ve never seen one in Canberra, but they are very common around Sydney. In fact, they used to gather in swarms, all on top of each other, in gum trees around where I grew up – an impressively scary sight. At night they would crawl up the tree and strip the leaves. And agree, the spines are youchee. The cocoons are easily identifiable, because they are large, greyish white and covered with the spines, which protrude through the casing. Very effective protection for the pupa.