(Very) creepy crawly: the Australian caterpillar with a skull face
Rex
If you're frightened of creepy crawlies, you certainly won't want to come across this strange caterpillar on your holiday to Australia.
The scary skull-faced specimen is the larvae of the pink underwing moth and is an endangered species only found in the Australian rainforest.
Botanist ecologist and photographer Lui Weber managed to snap the rare caterpillar, which is characterised by a chilling set of teeth-like markings set between spots that look like eyes with large pupils.
The extraordinary specimen is found below the altitude of 600m in undisturbed, subtropical rainforest, surviving on the vine Carronia multisepalea, a collapsed shrub that provides the food and habitat the moth requires for breeding.
Rex
Lui told Rex Features: 'Sadly this moth is very rare I only know of a single adult seen last year so I do not have photographs of the adult yet. This southern subspecies is listed as nationally endangered in Australia.'
All but one of the habitat locations of the moth are in south-eastern Queensland, distributed from Nambour to the Queensland-NSW border, but Lui says more discoveries are being made.
'It was only known to breed in a single location in upland rainforest however this year I have discovered another three locations and a colleague has located one additional site making five locations in total.'
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