| Doubleday's Footman (one synonym : Castula binotata Walker, 1869) LITHOSIINI, ARCTIINAE, EREBIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
David Akers,
Won Wron, Victoria)
|
| Doubleday's Footman (one synonym : Castula binotata Walker, 1869) LITHOSIINI, ARCTIINAE, EREBIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
David Akers,
Won Wron, Victoria)
The caterpillars of this species are dark grey with brown verrucae.
The head is flat and black with brown sides. The legs are brown.
When threatened, the caterpillar curls into a defensive spiral with the head in the centre.
The pupa is bulbous and dark brown. It is formed in a loose cocoon in a sheltered spot.
The male and female adult moths are very similar, and have black forewings each with a variable yellow spot on the hind margin and a yellow mark along the costa.
The hindwings are yellow with variable black margins, and each has a variable dark spot near the middle. The head and thorax are black except for an orange prothorax. The wingspan is up to 3 cms.
The species is found in:
The adult moths have a coiled haustellum under the head, which they can uncoil, and through which they can sip nectar from flowers.
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 18.10, p. 436.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 2,
Tiger Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (A),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2009, pp. 22-23.
Edward Newman,
Characters of a few apparently undescribed Insects collected by James Gibbon, Esq., at Moreton Bay,
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
New Series, Volume IV, Part 8 (1857), pp. 55-56, No. 1.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 22 March 2011, 5 May 2023)