Homodes bracteigutta (Walker, 1862)
(one synonym : Lophoruza chalcocosma Turner, 1945)
CATOCALINI,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Homodes bracteigutta
(Photo: courtesy of Ian Common, from Moths of Australia)

This caterpillar is green or brown, and has a series of long protuberances that it keeps waving about, so that it resembles two ants talking to each other.

Homodes bracteigutta
(Photo: courtesy of the Bishop Museum, Hawaii)

The caterpillar has always been found in the company of similar

  • Weaver Ants ( Oecophylla sp. FORMICINAE).

    Homodes bracteigutta
    (Photo: courtesy of Darren Allen, Brisbane, Queensland)

    The caterpillar has been found on :

  • Rambutan ( Nephelium lappaceum, SAPINDACEAE ),
  • Longan ( Dimocarpus longan, SAPINDACEAE ),
  • Carrotwood ( Cupaniopsis anacardioides, SAPINDACEAE ), and
  • Common Mistletoe ( Amyema conspicua, LORANTHACEAE ), and
  • Mango flowers ( Mangifera indica, ANACARDIACEAE ).

    Homodes bracteigutta
    (Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

    The adult moth is brown with curved orange marginal and submarginal arcs enclosing an arc of mauve spots on each wing.

    Homodes bracteigutta
    (Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

    The species occurs in

  • Bali,
  • Borneo,
  • Hong Kong,
  • India,
  • New Guinea,
  • Thailand,

    and in Australia in:

  • Western Australia,
  • Northern Territory, and
  • Queensland.

    Homodes bracteigutta
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 43.4. pl. 31.15, p. 450.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 141.

    Francis Walker,
    Geometrites,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 24 (1862), p. 1088, No. 1.


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    (updated 15 July 2012, 21 August 2023)