Cossodes lyonetii (White, 1841)
(previously known as Tirema lyonetii)
COSSINAE,   COSSIDAE,   COSSOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Perth, Western Australia)

These Caterpillars live underground, feeding on the roots of:

  • Grass Tree ( Xanthorrhoea, ASPHODELACEAE ).


    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Perth, Western Australia)

    The adult moths have black and white forewings, and plain black hindwings, all with a green sheen (which fades in museum specimens). They have a wingspan of about 5 cms. They are dusk flyers, resting on the tips of grass shoots by day.

    They occur in

  • the south of Western Australia.


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 26.1, p. 270.

    Axel Kallies & Douglas J. Hilton,
    Revision of Cossinae and small Zeuzerinae from Australia (Lepidoptera: Cossidae),
    Zootaxa,
    3454 (2012), p. 24.

    Adam White,
    Notes on some insects from King George's Sound,
    in George Grey (ed.):
    Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-west and Western Australia,
    London : T. & W. Boone, Volume 2, Part vii, p. 477, No. 9, Illustr. 26.


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    (updated 8 December 2010, 10 February 2020)