Caterpillar with 12 parasite cocoons attached

It is prone to attack by a variety of parasites and parasitoids. It grows to length of about 3 cms., and then pupates in a sheltered crevice in a cocoon.

The moth is brown, with a yellow spot in the middle of the thorax. It also has a yellow abdomen. The hindwings are yellow with a black margins. The forewings are brown with a yellow line along the costa, and sometimes two blurred yellow marks near the centre of each forewing. The spot on the thorax distinguishes it from the similar moth: Palaeosia bicosta. Both species have a wingspan of about 3 cms.

(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

Specimens of this species have been taken in

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Burrill Lake, New South Wales)

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 18.24, p. 437.

John William Lewin,
Prodromus Entomology,
Natural History of Lepidopterous Insects of New South Wales,
London : T. Bensley (1805), p. 16, and also Plate 15.

George F. Hampson,
Catalogue of the Arctiadae (Nolinae, Lithosianae) in the Collection of the British Museum,
Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
Volume 2 (1900), p. 162, No. 323.

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(updated 2 February 2010, 8 October 2013, 28 March 2015, 28 May 2017)