Oxycanus beltista (Turner, 1926) (previously known as Porina beltista) HEPIALIDAE,   HEPIALOIDEA

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

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.

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.

(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 :

Tasmania.

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.

---

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian Lepidoptera

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(written 20 December 2013, updated 13 August 2024)