(one synonym : Hypaetra trigonifera Walker, 1858) EREBINAE, EREBIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Alison Petelski, Brisbane, Queensland)
The caterpillar of this species is quite variable in colours and pattern, but usually is basically white with many black lines along the body. The head is pale brown with dark spots. The spiracles are white in black circles.
The first abdominal segment has a black, white and orange triangular hump. The last segment also has a triangular hump. The sides of the penultimate segments and of the claspers are orange. The first pair of prolegs are degenerate, so the caterpillar moves in a looper fashion.
The caterpillar was found feeding on
The caterpillar grew to a length of about 4.5 cms. It pupated in a cocoon amongst the ground litter. The pupa had a length of about 2 cms.
The adult moth is quite variable in colours and pattern, but usually is brown with a broad tapering pale wavy band across the middle of each forewing, with a pale finger poking outwards halfway across.
The female is less boldly marked than the male. The hindwings and the undersides of both sexes are plain brown, darkening toward the margins. The wingspan of both sexes is about 5 cms.
The species is found in across south-east Asia and the western Pacific, including
and in Australia in:
Further reading :
Johan Christian Fabricius,
Entomologia Systematica Emendata et Aucta,
Tom. 3, Part 2 (1793), p. 50, No. 136.
Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 128.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 7 February 2011, 17 August 2013, 1 March 2020)