Hectobrocha pentacyma Meyrick, 1886
Five-banded Footman
 LITHOSIINI,   ARCTIINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Hectobrocha pentacyma larva
(Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Sydney, New South Wales)

This is a small brown hairy Caterpillar which grows to about 1 cm. It lives in a group of its own kind. The ones in the photograph were on the stem of a bush of:

  • Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens, SAXIFRAGACEAE ),

    but were suspected of feeding on algae or dead leaves, and just resting on a Hydrangea stem.

    They pupated in thin loose cocoons on the stem.

    Hectobrocha pentacyma
    (Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Sydney, New South Wales)

    The adult moths are small and pale yellow, with dark brown zigzag markings and dots on the forewings. The moths have a wingspan of about 2 cms.

    Hectobrocha pentacyma
    (Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

    The specimens have been caught in

  • Queensland
  • New South Wales, and
  • Victoria.

    Further reading:

    Peter Marriott,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 2,
    Tiger Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (A)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2009, pp. 22-23.

    Edward Meyrick,
    Descriptions of Australian Micro-lepidoptera. I. Crambites,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Series 2, Volume 1, Part 3 (1886), p. 707, No. 27.

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    (updated 5 May 2013, 10 April 2017, 20 August 2020)