To feed, the first instar bends over the leaf and eats the surface layer. Later instars eat the whole leaf from the edge inwards. The caterpillar moves very little, clinging to the same position on the same leaf for several days at a time. When it does move, mouth parts and legs separate and point downwards. This makes the projection behind the head point upwards, like a conical hat.

(Photo: courtesy of Merlin Crossley, Melbourne, Victoria)

The caterpillar looks pretty as it 'tip toes' along a leaf: first the front end moves ahead, then the rear end loops forward to join it.

(Photo: courtesy of Amy Prendergast, Perth, Western Australia)

When disturbed, the Caterpillar stands out stiffly like a twig. standing on its anal prolegs and the single pair of ventral prolegs. This is fine if it is on a twig, but is conspicuous when it happens to be on the edge of a leaf. Perhaps their normal predators are too silly to notice.

pupa
(Photo: courtesy of Steve Williams, Moths of Victoria: Part 4)

In captivity the caterpillars pupated four weeks after hatching from the egg. The pupa was formed in the soil. The adult moths emerged two weeks after pupation in February in Melbourne.

(Photo: courtesy of Andrew Wright, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory)

The adult is unsurprising. Its upper surfaces are a dull grey marked with dark irregular lines.

female, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Trevor Jinks, Upper Burnett, Queensland)

But the undersides are strikingly patterned. They are pale grey, with black submarginal bands, bordered on the inside with red, and the forewings each have a large black spot and an orange patch.

male, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Nikita hosking, Goulburn, New South Wales)

The males have comb-like antennae. The females have thread-like antennae. The moths usually rests with their wings outspread. The moths have a wingspan of about 4 cms.

adult moth trying to read the time on a ladies wristwatch
(Photo: courtesy of Ted Cadwallader, Swan Hill, Victoria)

The eggs of this species are ovoid and green, and minutely pitted. They are laid irregularly along the edge of a leaf of the foodplant. They take about five days to hatch in captivity.

eggs, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Steve Williams, Moths of Victoria: Part 4)

The species is found over much of Australia, including:

close-up of head of female
(Photo: courtesy of Trevor Jinks, Upper Burnett, Queensland)

Further reading :

David Carter,
Butterflies and Moths,
Collins Eyewitness Handbooks, Sydney 1992, p. 195.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 37.12, p. 372.

Pat and Mike Coupar,
Flying Colours,
New South Wales University Press, Sydney 1992, p. 43.

Edward Donovan,
General Illustration of Entomology,
An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of New Holland, New Zealand, New Guinea, Otaheite and other Islands in the Indian, Southern and Pacific Oceans,
London (1803), p. 164, and also Plate, p. 162.

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. 138.

Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria: Part 4,
Emeralds and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (B),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2012, pp. 30-31.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 139.

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(updated 29 June 2013, 14 May 2023)