| Dryandra Moth CARTHAEIDAE, BOMBYCOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of John Tann, Boyagin Nature Reserve, Western Australia)
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| Dryandra Moth CARTHAEIDAE, BOMBYCOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
The Caterpillars of this species are grey with orange patches, and a row of eyespots, each around a spiracle, along each side. The caterpillars feed in broad daylight. on the foliage of various species of PROTEACEAE, including
The caterpillars pupate in a loose cocoon that they spin in the leaves and detritus on the ground, a little distance away from the base of their foodplant tree or shrub.
The adult moths have brown wings, each with an eyespot and two wiggly white transverse lines.
When disturbed, they depress the head and abdomen, spread the wings, and incline the wings forward thus exposing the eyespots on the hindwings. The hindwings are then oscillated from side to side, presumably drawing attention to the eyespots as a defence mechanism.
The hindwings sometimes have a paler area around the eyespot, and a reddish shading around the wingtips. The females have thread-like antennae, and the males have feathery antennae. The moths of both sexes have a wingspan of about 8 cms.
The species occurs only in
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 14.12, figs. 119.1, 119.2, 1193, 119.4, pp. 402-403.
Francis Walker,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 14 (1858), pp. 1314-1315, No. 1.
Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
.
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 160.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  caterpillars |  caterpillar |
(updated 11 November 2010, 27 October 2022)