Termessa shepherdi (Newman, 1856) Shepherd's Footman LITHOSIINI,   ARCTIINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans, (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley

Drawing: by A. Bartholemew, listed as Castulo shepherdi,
in F. McCoy :Prodromus Zoology, ca. 1885,
courtesy of Peter Marriott, Moths of Victoria: Part 2

This caterpillar is brown with a dark head, and white verrucae along the sides and back of the body.

(Photo: courtesy of Peter Marriott, Moths of Victoria: Part 2)

The adult moth is white or yellow, with broad ragged black bands across each forewing, and two black spots: a large one near the tornus, and a smaller one near wingtip of each hindwing. It has a wingspan of about 2.5 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Wandiyali Images, Wandiyali-Environa Conservation Area, New South Wales)

The species is found in

South Australia.

Lithograph by G.H. Ford, in Edward Newman:
Characters of a few Australian Lepidoptera, Collected by Mr. Thomas R. Oxley,
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
New Series, Volume III (1856), Plate 18, fig. 11,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

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Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 18.1, p. 436.

Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 2,
Tiger Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (A),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2009, pp. 20-23.

Edward Newman,
Characters of a few Australian Lepidoptera, Collected by Mr. Thomas R. Oxley,
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
New Series, Volume 3, Number 8 (1856), p. 285, and also Plate 18, fig. 11.

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(updated 13 February 2011, 10 January 2023)