Abantiades hyalinatus (Herrich-Schaffer, [1853])
 (one synonym : Pielus erythrinus Walker, 1865)
Mustard Ghost Moth
HEPIALIDAE,   HEPIALOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley & Peter Marriott

Abantiades hyalinatus
female
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris in Morwell Park, Victoria)

This species has a beautiful adult form, with mustard forewings and head and thorax, and red or purple abdomen and hindwings, although the coloration of the wings varies between individuals. The males also often have a pair of fragmented silver flashes across each forewing. The moths have unipectinate antennae.

Abantiades hyalinatus
male
(Photo: courtesy of Peter Marriott, Moths of Victoria - Part 6)

The moths have a wingspan of from 10 to 12 cms. The adults are on the wing in February, March and April.

Abantiades hyalinatus
female
(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan in Dandenong Ranges, Victoria)

We have taken specimens in Victoria in very different locations: on a coastal heath with some coastal eucalypt cover, and also in the hills behind Melbourne in wet sclerophyll forest.

The species can be found in

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

    Abantiades hyalinatus
    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Halina Steele, in Merimbula, New South Wales)

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 17.8, p. 150.

    Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer,
    Sammlung neuer oder wenig bekannter aussereuropäischer Schmetterlinge,
    Verzeichniss der in diesem Werke gelieferten Arten nach Reihenfolge ihrer Veroffentlichung,
    Series I, Volume 1, Part 3 (1855), p. 78, and Plate 11, fig. 50.

    Axel Kallies,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 6,
    Ghost Moths - HEPIALIDAE and Allies    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2015, pp. 12-13, 20-21.

    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, pp. 9, 54, 58, 69, Plates 3, 4, 5, 43.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 41.

    previous
    back
    caterpillar
    Australian
    Australian Butterflies
    butterflies
    Australian
    home
    Lepidoptera
    Australian
    Australian Moths
    moths
    next
    next
    caterpillar

    (updated 17 September 2011, 23 October 2022)