Pale Delicate (previously known as Asthena pellucida) ASTHENINI, LARENTIINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
male
(Photo: courtesy of Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria: Part 3)
The adult moth of this species is off-white, with a faint series of wavy pale green lines across each wing, and a dark dot near the middle of each wing. The forewings have a brownish leading edge. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms. The green fades to brown in museum specimens.
The species has been found in
This species is often treated as a synonym for Poecilasthena thalassias but the latter has smooth hindwing margins and is smaller, so here, until further work is done, it is treated as a separate species.
Further reading:
Thomas P. Lucas,
On twenty new species of Australian Lepidoptera,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume 7, Part 4 (1892), pp. 253-254.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria: Part 3,
Waves & Carpets - GEOMETROIDEA (C),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2011, pp. 12-13, 32-33.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(written 14 September 2013, updated 30 May 2018, 13 November 2019)