EREBIDAE of Australia
Underwings, Litter Moths, Fruit-Piercing Moths, Snout Moths
NOCTUOIDEA
 

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

EREBIDAE

eggs
EREBIDAE

caterpillars
EREBIDAE

pupae
EREBIDAE

moths
EREBIDAE

undersides
EREBIDAE

forewings

There are approximately 1,340 named Australian species in EREBIDAE.
Here: our species webpages are listed for convenience in their various subfamilies and a tribe of EREBIDAE :-

AGANAINAE
ANOBINAE
ARCTIINAE
BOLETOBIINAE
CALPINAE
CATOCALINI
EREBINAE
except CATOCALINI
EULEPIDOTINAE
HERMINIINAE
HYPENINAE
HYPENODINAE
HYPOCALINAE
LYMANTRIINAE
PANGRAPTINAE
RIVULINAE
SCOLIOPTERYGINAE
TOXOCAMPINAE

The EREBIDAE include many pests of tropical crop plants. Some species of this family are semi-loopers. They lack ventral prolegs and loop their bodies when moving. In this way they resemble the caterpillars of the family GEOMETRIDAE.

The caterpillars of most of the subfamilies in EREBIDAE are smooth, lacking obvious hairs. Their bodies are often green, brown or yellow. Two subfamilies have very hairy caterpillars, and these have the full set of prolegs.

Most species of EREBIDAE typically pupate in a sparse cocoon under a leaf of their foodplant or between dead leaves in ground debris.

Note that although the Checklist of Australian Lepidoptera included the subfamilies here in NOCTUIDAE or as separate families in NOCTUOIDEA, following the more recent paper Molecular phylogenetics of Erebidae (Lepidoptera, Noctuoidea) here we list them in EREBIDAE.

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(written 3 June 2023, updated 9 October 2023)