Idiodes apicata Guenée, 1857
(one synonym : Idiodes mitigata Guenée, 1857)
Bracken Moth
LITHININI,   ENNOMINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Idiodes apicata
male
(Photo: courtesy of Marilyn Hewish, Moths of Victoria: Part 7)

The Caterpillars of this species feed on :

  • Bracken ( Pteridium esculentum, POLYPODIOPHYTA ).

    Idiodes apicata
    female
    (Photo: courtesy of Marilyn Hewish, Moths of Victoria: Part 7)

    The adult moth of this species is brown with varied markings often including a line or line of dots from the wingtip to midway along the hind margin on each forewing, and a similar submarginal line on the each hindwing. The forewings have hooktips. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

    Idiodes apicata
    male, drawing by Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer, listed as Idiodes punctiger,

    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), Plate CXXIV, fig. 4,
    Image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    Underneath, there is a large dark spot near the middle of each hindwing.

    Idiodes apicata
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Joan Fearn, Moruya, New South Wales)

    The species occurs over the southern half of Australia, including:

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Idiodes apicata
    male underside, drawing by Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer, listed as Idiodes punctiger,

    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), Plate CXXIV, fig. 4a,
    Image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    The adult moths can be distinguished from those of the similar species Idiodes siculoides by the absence of a white transverse line on top of the head joining the antennae.


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 35.3, p. 366.

    Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (1875), p. 12, and also Plate 124, figs. 4 and 4a.

    Achille Guenée,
    in Boisduval & Guenée: Uranides et Phalénites,
    Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
    Volume 9, Part 9 (1857), p. 40, No. 25, and also Plate 13, fig. 1.

    Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria: Part 7,
    Bark Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (D)
    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2016, pp. 8-9.

    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 125.


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    (updated 20 July 2013, 9 August 2018)