Promoted
Eucalyptus haemastoma - Scribbly Gum
When the cork cambium starts to produce cork to shed the outer bark it produces scar tissue in response to the feeding of the caterpillar, filling the doubled up part of the larval tunnel with highly nutritious, thin-walled cells.
https://csiropedia.csiro.au/scribbly-gum-moths/
These replacement cells are ideal food for the caterpillar which moults into its final life stage with legs, turns around and eats its way back along the way it has come. It now grows rapidly to maturity and leaves the tree to spin a cocoon at its base, where it pupates.
Not long after the caterpillar leaves the tree, the bark cracks off and exposes the iconic scribbles beneath.
"Eucalyptus haemastoma", commonly known as scribbly gum, is a species of tree that is endemic to the Sydney region. It has white or silvery grey bark, lance-shaped or curved adult leaves, flower buds in groups of between nine and fifteen, white flowers and conical or hemispherical fruit. It is one of three eucalypts with prominent insect scribbles in the bark.
comments (2)