The caterpillars feed on the flesh underneath the leaves leaving the upper skin intact.

The species was introduced into Hawaii in an attempt to control that weed, and then in 1965 into Australia.

(Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Mission Beach, Queensland)

The adult moth has brown patterned forewings. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The species was originally found in Africa, including

and is now found in

and also in Australia in

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 44.7, pp. 72, 448.

Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 8,
Night Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA(B),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2017, pp. 8-9.

Ebbe S. Nielsen, Edward D. Edwards, & T.V. Rangsi (eds),
Checklist of Australian Lepidoptera, CSIRO Publishing, 1996, pp. 294, 338, 371.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 164.

Francis Walker,
Deltoides,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 16 (1859), p. 60, No. 68.

caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian caterpillars

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(written 6 March 2005, updated 2 December 2012, 16 August 2019, 6 April 2021)