The Caterpillar pupates in its wooden tunnel near the entrance, forming a plug at the entrance before doing so. It pushes this plug out a few days before emerging as a moth.

The adult moths are pale orange, with a white and a brown diagonal stripe, and a white eye-spot and other white markings on each forewing. They have a dark brown abdomen. The moths can be very large, having a wingspan up to 25 cms.

(Photon: courtesy of Amanda and Dale Hibbert, Central Coast, NSW)

The adult moths are inclined to hang from a branch and look like a dead leaf.

(Photo: courtesy of Amanda and Dale Hibbert, Central Coast, NSW)

When disturbed: they arch their abdomen.

(Photo: courtesy of Bronwyn Laing, Wallerawang, NSW)

The species occurs in Queensland and New South Wales.

Further reading :

David Carter,
Butterflies and Moths, Collins Eyewitness Handbooks, Sydney 1992, p. 294.

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

A.S. Olliff,
Notes on Zelotypia stacyi, and an account of a variety, Kabourek, Sokolska, Czech Republic, 1887, 4 pp.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 42.

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(updated 2 April 2011)