(Photo: courtesy of Brenda Martin, Pambula, New South Wales)

The adult moths have wings that are black with white straight and zigzag lines. The abdomen is black on top and has orange stripes underneath, and a scarlet tuft on the tail.

mating couple, showing undersides
(Photo: courtesy of Eileen Collins, Chiltern, Victoria)

The adult is a day-flying moth, with a wingspan of up to 5 cm.

(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The species is found on mainland Australia, including:

Further reading :

George French Angas,
South Australia illustrated,
Thomas McLean, London, Part 7 (1847), Plate 37.

Arthur Bartholomew,
Agarista casuarinae,
Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria, 1861, Museum of Victoria.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp. 447, 464.

Pat and Mike Coupar,
Flying Colours,
New South Wales University Press, Sydney 1992, p. 68.

Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), pp. 13, 20, 174.

Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 8,
Night Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA(B),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2017, pp. 34-35.

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian Lepidoptera

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(updated 9 December 2009, 18 September 2013, 29 January 2014, 15 March 2015, 19 August 2020)