Poecilasthena pulchraria (Doubleday, 1843)
Australian Cranberry Moth
 (previously known as Acidalia pulchraria)
ASTHENINI,   LARENTIINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Poecilasthena pulchraria
(Photo: courtesy of Steve Williams, Moths of Victoria: Part 3)

The Caterpillars of this species are initially brown. Later they become green with a white line along each side, above variable rusty-brown markings. The caterpillars are loopers, missing three pairs of prolegs. The caterpillars have been found feeding on various plants in ERICACEAE in the genera:

  • Astroloma,
  • Epacris,
  • Leucopogon, and
  • Monotoca.

    and especially

  • Cranberry Heath ( Astroloma humifusum ).

    Poecilasthena pulchraria
    (Photo: courtesy of Steve Williams, Moths of Victoria: Part 3)

    The pupa is formed in a sparse white cocoon in the ground litter.

    Poecilasthena pulchraria
    (Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Aranda, Australian Capital Territory)

    The adult moth is pale green with lots of wiggly white lines across the wings. The costa of each forewing is brown. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.

    Poecilasthena pulchraria
    (Photo: courtesy of Laura Levens, Upper Beaconsfield, Victoria)

    The eggs are pale brown and ellipsoidal, and minutely pitted.

    Poecilasthena pulchraria
    egg, magnified
    (Photo: courtesy of Steve Williams, Moths of Victoria: Part 3)

    The species is found across southern Australiasia, including:

  • New Zealand,

    as well as in Australia in:

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Poecilasthena pulchraria
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of John Bromilow, Ainslie, Australian Capital Territory)

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 37.16, p. 376.

    Edward Doubleday,
    with Adam White : List of the annulose animals hitherto recorded as found in New Zealand with descriptions of some new species,
    in Ernest Dieffenbach: Travels in New Zealand,
    John Murray, London 1843, Volume 2, p. 286, No. 121.

    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 114.

    Peter Marriott,
    Moths of Victoria: Part 3,
    Waves & Carpets - GEOMETROIDEA (C)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2011, pp. 32-33.

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    (updated 14 September 2013, 9 June 2018, 16 October 2020)