in the plant family LAURACEAE.

female
(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The forewings of the adult moths are black with white markings, and the hind wings are orange with a black margin.

The males have a curved transparent 'window' in each forewing. They also make a clicking-whistling sound when flying. This is made in flight by a ribbed area on the forewing rubbing against a small protrusion. The noise is probably used to attract females. They fly in the daytime. The striking colours suggested that the adult moths might be poisonous and aposematically coloured, especially as the larvae feed on poisonous plants. However, recent research has investigated this and found that the moths are not poisonous for predators to eat, and that the moths possibly evade capture by employing a very erratic flight pattern.

The species occurs in the

Further reading :

J. Alcock & W.J. Bailey,
Acoustical communication and the mating system of the Australian whistling moth Hecatesia exultans (Noctuidae: Agaristinae), Journal of Zoology, Volume 237 (1995), pp. 337-352.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 22.25, pp. 51, 464.

A. Talianchich, W.J. Bailey, & E.L. Ghisalberti,
Palatability and defense in the aposematic diurnal whistling moth, Hecatesia exultans Walker (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Agaristinae), Australian Journal of Entomology, Volume 42, Part 3 (2003), pp. 276-280.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 14.

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(updated 13 September 2010)