Oxycanus beltista (Turner, 1926)
(previously known as Porina beltista)
HEPIALIDAE,   HEPIALOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Oxycanus beltista
female
(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Bunya Mountains, Queensland)

The adult male moths of this species have brown forewings, each sometimes with a pale longitudinal streak or a pale transverse band.

Oxycanus beltista
male
(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Bunya Mountains, Queensland)

Sometimes the streak or band is fragmented. Sometimes it is missing altogether. Sometimes the forewings also have a scatter of white spots.

Oxycanus beltista
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The hindwings are brown at the margin usually shading to dark red at the base. The top of the abdomen is also usually dark red. The red colours fade to brown in museum specimens. The wingspan can be around 10 cms.

The species has been found in :

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria, and
  • Tasmania.

    Oxycanus beltista
    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Bunya Mountains, Queensland)


    Further reading :

    Peter Hendry,
    Oxycanus beltista (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae),
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 70 (September 2013), pp. 31-33.

    A. Jefferis Turner,
    Studies in Australian Lepidoptera,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 50 (1926), p. 155.


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    (written 20 December 2013, updated 26 January 2024)