Beautiful babies! 😍

Beautiful babies! 😍

Post by The Defiant Forest:

Nature never ceases to astonish.  This is the larva of the Pink Underwing Moth, an endangered species which lives in the subtropical rainforest below about 600m elevation in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland. It has evolved a remarkable set of patterns to ward off potential predators.

Very few sightings of the caterpillar or the adult moth have been made this year, provoking fears that this highly endangered species is on the point of extinction. It is threatened by clearing of the rainforest as well as invasion by exotic vine species which have superseded its own favored food.

Unfortunately, too, when a population becomes so low that too becomes another issue – the adults simply do not encounter each other regularly enough to mate.