| (previously known as Choara siculoides) Straight-winged Bracken Moth LITHININI, ENNOMINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Cathy Byrne & Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Cathy Byrne,
Claremont, Tasmania,
Moths of Victoria: Part 7)
These Caterpillars are loopers, having only 4 prolegs. They are brown with a light and dark markings.
The caterpillars feed on ferns, including:
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 hooked wingtips. The wingspan is about 4 cms.
The females have thread-like antennae. The males have thicker antennae The adult moths can be distinguished from those of the similar species Idiodes apicata by the white transverse line on top of the head joining the antennae.
The eggs are spherical and covered in a fine embossed honeycomb pattern. Initially they are white, darkening through pink as hatching approaches.
The species occurs over much of Australia, including:
Further reading :
Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria: Part 7,
Bark Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (D),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2016, pp. 6-9.
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.
Francis Walker,
Geometrites,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 21 (1860), p. 291, No. 1.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 25 October 2010, 8 October 2013, 17 June 2016, 9 August 2018, 11 May 2021)