![]() | Hairy Mary (one synonym : Darala pinguis Walker, 1865) ANTHELINAE, ANTHELIDAE, BOMBYCOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@outlook.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
This Caterpillar begins life as one of a row of eggs laid by its mother. The newly hatched Caterpillars are black with a white thorax and long sparse grey hairs. They mainly seem to feed on the leaves of:
The caterpillars grow to a length of about 7 cms.
When mature, they become brown with long dense tufts of white hair on the sides between each pair of segments.
They pupate in a buff papery double-walled cocoon among dead leaves or under a log.
The adult moths vary in colour from yellow to brown, with a zig-zag submarginal line, and often a brown-edged yellow midline across each wing. The forewings each have two dark spots, and the hindwings one. The females can have wingspans up to 9 cms. The males are somewhat smaller.
The species is found mainly in the coastal areas of eastern Australia, including:
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 28.5, p. 395.
Peter Hendry,
The Anthelidae,
Metamorphosis Australia,
Issue 50 (September 2008), pp. 27-31,
Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 1,
Silk Moths and Allies - BOMBYCOIDEA,
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2008, pp. 22-23.
Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 11.
Francis Walker,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 4 (1855), pp. 890-891, No. 6.
Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 156.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(updated 24 April 2013)