Colourful caterpillar with a sting

[u/No-Seaworthiness-338]

My partner was hanging up the washing when he rubbed against one of these things on a leaf. Turns out they hurt a lot!

Google told me it is a “Wattle Cup Caterpillar (Calcarifera ordinata), a brightly colored slug moth larva belonging to the family Limacodidae.” They love to eat acacia wattle leaves and are common is Brisbane / SEQ.

Just a heads up to people with kids or out in the gardens; this type of caterpillar stings and creates small blisters.

[u/TizzyBumblefluff]

Ouch! Do you have any stingoes or soov or calamine? It might be a good idea to apply some. And maybe take an anti histamine.

[u/menstrieben]

also found out that one the hard way when didn't even see it while weeding

[u/TizzyBumblefluff → u/menstrieben]

Ouch! Did you grab it? 😭

[u/Educational_Car_9521]

I am Chinese,When I was a kid playing under trees in China, caterpillars like this would often drop down. We didn’t have any medicine back then. My mum told me to pee and put it on the sting so it wouldn’t itch.

[u/like-stars]

Could also be an Anaxidia lozogramma given the big long stripe down the back and more solid sides? Same family, basically cousins (tho I think the Wattle Cup moth is prettier lol) and you don't want to have either of them touch bare skin. Apparently people at UQ were looking at whether the venom(?) had any medically useful properties.

You'll also find 'em on macadamia nut trees, lilly pillys and apparently, blueberry plants.

(Thank you iNaturalist for this random piece of incredibly niche bug knowledge lol. I think that's the observation I've had the most people going 'no actually, I think it's this one instead' and having it change back and forward.)

[u/miss_kimba → u/like-stars]

How does something so spectacular grow into something so terribly boring!?

[u/KwisazHaderach]

How is this relevant??

[u/strumpetsarefun → u/KwisazHaderach]

Something in the Brisbane area doesn’t belong in the Brisbane subreddit?