Aenetus dulcis (Swinhoe, 1892)
(one synonym : Charagia celsissima Olliff, 1895)
HEPIALIDAE,   HEPIALOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Aenetus dulcis
Female
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Perth, Western Australia)

The caterpillars of this species have been found living in tunnels bored into stems of various plants in MYRTACEAE including

  • Willow Myrtle (Agonis flexuosa), and
  • Western Tea Tree (Taxandria species).

    Aenetus dulcis
    Male
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Perth, Western Australia)

    The male adult moths are white with a green submarginal line on each forewing.

    Aenetus dulcis
    Female
    (Photo: courtesy of David Knowles, Walcott, Western Australia)

    The females have green forewings, each crossed by two wiggly white lines. The females have orange hind wings. The moths have a wingspan up to 11 cms.

    Aenetus dulcis
    Male
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Perth, Western Australia)

    The species is found in

  • the south of Western Australia

    Aenetus dulcis
    egg that fell on a sleeve
    (Photo: Connor Ellis, courtesy of Jody Ellis, Margaret River, Western Australia)

    The eggs are white and spherical, each with a diameter of about 0.5 mm. They are laid, and fall randomly everywhere and anywhere, while the female flies or walks about. How first instars find food is unclear.


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 1.4, p. 148.

    Thomas J. Simonsen,
    Splendid Ghost Moths and their Allies,
    A Revision of Australian Abantiades, Oncopera, Aenetus, Archaeoaenetus and Zelotypia (Hepialidae),
    Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 12,
    CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2018.

    Charles Swinhoe,
    Sphinges and Bombyces,
    Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the collection of the Oxford University Museum,
    Clarendon Press, Part 1 (1892), pp. 288-289, No. 1338.


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    (updated 19 September 2011, 17 July 2023)