| Varied Grey GEOMETRINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)
|
| Varied Grey GEOMETRINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)
This Caterpillar is green, with a yellow-edged red line along each side along the spiracles. The caterpillar has a pointed conical head. When resting, the cone is folded down to appear as a continuation of the body, and the face cannot be seen.
The caterpillars feed on :
The caterpillar pupates in a cocoon spun between curled joined leaves of the foodplant. The pupa is brown with a white surface coating.
The adult moth is grey-brown with wavy lines. Tasmanian specimens are generally paler than mainland specimens. The wingspan is about 5 cms.
The eggs are smooth and somewhat conical ovals. They are laid in irregular clusters.
Evidence from DNA has shown that most specimens from mainland Australia that were thought previously to be Hypobapta percomptaria are actually in a species complex currently named Hypobapta tachyhalotaria, and that Hypobapta percomptaria probably only exists in Tasmania. Thus the renamed specimens can be found in
Further reading :
Axel Hausmann, Manfred Sommerer, Rodolphe Rougerie & Paul Hebert,
Hypobapta tachyhalotaria spec. nov. from Tasmania –
an example of a new species revealed by DNA barcoding,
Spixiana, Volume 32, Number 2 (November 2009), pp. 161-166.
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. 139.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria: Part 4,
Emeralds and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (B),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2012, pp. 30-31.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 28 June 2013, 21 June 2018, 10 February 2019, 21 April 2021, 30 December 2021)