Hi! I found these mystery caterpillars on my hillock bush (melaleuca hypericifolia) and iNat isnt being much help. I live in Victoria, if these are native they can stay, if they are invasive i’ll euthanise them. I want to let them keep doing their thing, im just curious what they are!
by BorederAndBoreder
1 Comment
Honestly unless you have a local Lepidopteran (Butterfly) expert pop up, you’re not likely to get a species level ID for these.
They don’t immediately appear to be any invasives that I know of, and their predation of native Myrtaceae (Myrtle/Euc) family plants is a good sign. In my experience, not many invasive leaf eaters can handle the tough leaves and presumably strong chemicals of Tea Trees/Eucs/Paperbarks.
I would leave them be, if there’s a fair few (>10) you can probably justify keeping one in a jar until it develops into a butterfly. If your plant is really young and getting rinsed, you can relocate them to another plant in the family.