Euphronarcha luxaria (Guenée, 1857)
 (one synonym : Tephrosia disperdita, Walker, 1860)
Striated Bark Moth
BOARMIINI,   ENNOMINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)

This Caterpillar is a smooth stripey brown looper, with a blunt pair of horns on the back of the first and last abdominal segment. There is a pale dash on each side of the back of the head.


head in close-up
(Photo: courtesy of David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)

The caterpillar has only one pair of prolegs on the penultimate abdominal segment, and claspers on the last segment, so walks in a looper fashion.


drawing by Harriet Morgan and Helena Forde, listed as Geometra rectefasciata,
Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, Plate XXI: bottom right,
courtesy of the Australian Museum

The caterpillar has been found feeding on

  • Manuka, (Leptospermum scoparium, MYRTACEAE), and
  • Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides, MYRTACEAE).


    pupa
    drawing by Harriet Morgan and Helena Forde, listed as Geometra rectefasciata    ,
    Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, Plate XXI: bottom right: figure 1,
    courtesy of the Australian Museum

    The caterpillar grows to a length of about 3 cms. The pupa is a shiny brown, and formed in a cocoon covered in dirt on the ground surface. The pupa has a length of about 1 cm.


    (Photo: copyright Cathy Byrne)

    The adult moth of this species is pale grey with dark wavy lines across the wings. The males have feathery antennae, and the females have filamentous antennae. The wingspan is about 3.5 cms.


    female, drawing by Harriet Morgan and Helena Forde, listed as Geometra rectefasciata    ,
    Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, Plate XXI: bottom right,
    courtesy of the Australian Museum

    The species has been found in:

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


    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of John Bromilow, Ainslie, Australian Capital Territory)

    Further reading :

    Achille Guenée,
    Uranides et Phalénites,
    in Boisduval & Guenée:
    Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
    Volume 9, Part 9 (1857), p. 220, No. 329.

    Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria: Part 7,
    Bark Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (D)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2016, pp. 28-29.

    Alexander Walker Scott, edited and revised by Arthur Sidney Olliff and Helena Forde
    Australian Lepidoptera and their transformations, with illustrations drawn from the life by his daughters, Harriet Morgan and Helena Forde,
    Australian Museum,
    Vol. 2 (1893), pp. 34-35 (62-63), and also Plate 21, bottom right.

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    (updated 20 July 2010, 19 April 2023)