Trismelasmos donovani (Rothschild, 1897) (one synonym: Xyleutes cinerosa Roepke, 1955) ZEUZERINAE,   COSSIDAE,   COSSOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult moths of this species are basically white heavily speckled with dark brown. Each forewing has two dark patches on the costa, one dark mark on the hind margin, and an interrupted dark subterminal band. The hindwings are dark grey, fading to pale speckled grey at the margins. The thorax is crossed by two, often broken, lines.

drawing by L. Walter Rothschild,
Some new species of Hertocera, Novitates Zoologicae, Volume IV (1897), Plate VII, figure 2,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library,
digitized by Natural History Museum Library, London.

The species is found in

Victoria.

wing undersides, drawing by L. Walter Rothschild,
Some new species of Hertocera, Novitates Zoologicae, Volume IV (1897), Plate VII, figure 2,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library,
digitized by Natural History Museum Library, London.

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Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 272.

L. Walter Rothschild,
Some new species of Hertocera,
Novitates Zoologicae,
Volume 4 (1897), pp. 307-308, No. 3, and Plate 7, figure 2.

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(updated 20 September 2008, 29 October 2023)