| Variable Oxycanus (one synonym : Porina kershawi Lucas, 1891) Variable Oxycanus HEPIALIDAE, HEPIALOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Ken Harris,
Morwell Park, Victoria)
|
| Variable Oxycanus (one synonym : Porina kershawi Lucas, 1891) Variable Oxycanus HEPIALIDAE, HEPIALOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Ken Harris,
Morwell Park, Victoria)
The Caterpillars of this species live in burrows they dig in the ground. Typically these are under Wattle bushes (Acacia species). The caterpillars line their burrows with silk. They feed nocturnally, crawling out of their burrows to feed on leaves.
The caterpillars pupate in their burrow. When the moth is ready to emerge, the pupa wriggles to the top of the burrow, and the empty skin is left poking half out of the burrow after the adult moth has departed.
The adult moths have patchy brown forewings, each with a variable number of postmedial arcs of dark spots, and sometimes with a white streak and/or two white spots.
The hindwings are reddish-brown, fading to pale orange at the margins. The moths have a wingspan of about 6 cms.
The eggs are spherical and white, with a diameter of about 0.5 mm. The eggs are laid scattered across the ground.
The species is found in
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 18.4, p. 150.
Axel Kallies,
Moths of Victoria - Part 6,
Ghost Moths - HEPIALIDAE and Allies,
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2015, pp. 12-13, 26-27.
Francis Walker,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 32, Supplement part 2 (1865), p. 597, No. vii, 1572.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 19 September 2011, 19 October 2019, 30 July 2020, 9 May 2021)