A Caterpillar With a Strange and Rather Macabre Hat

These small 20mm long caterpillars of the Gum Leaf Skeletoniser, Uraba lugens , like to ware little hats, but what is the hat made from? Each of those little pieces stacked up on it's head are old head capsules and skin. Yes, each time the caterpillar sheds it's skin, the old head capsule is retained. The one in the first photos clearly has four old head capsules, plus the one it is currently using. That means it is in it's fifth and final stage (fifth instar) and will soon pupate and become a moth. It's a strange and unusual behaviour, to say the least, and one I'm glad us humans don't have to do. Mind you, we would not need a photo album. We could simply point up and say, "That's me when I was younger" :-)

This next one is also in it's fifth instar but seems to have lost a few of it's head ornaments.

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