Cyclophragma cyclomela (Lower, 1903)
(one synonym: Cyclophragma leucosticta Grünberg, 1923)
LASIOCAMPINAE,   LASIOCAMPIDAE,   BOMBYCOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Cyclophragma cyclomela
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

This is a brown Caterpillar with sparse stiff dark hairs emanating from warts along the back. It has denser hairs like a skirt along each side. It was found was decending from :

  • Grey Ironbark, ( Eucalyptus drepanophylla, MYRTACEAE ).

    although it was not observed feeding.

    Cyclophragma cyclomela
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

    The pupa is formed in a brown cocoon spun between joined leaves.

    Cyclophragma cyclomela
    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Dominic Funnell, Townsville, Queensland)

    The moths are brown with a tiny white spot near the centre, and some faint spotted and wiggly transverse lines across each forewing.

    Cyclophragma cyclomela
    female
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

    The abdomen of the male is banded in black and yellow, but that of the female is plain brown. The moths have a wingspan up to 5 cms.

    Cyclophragma cyclomela
    eggs laid on the cocoon
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

    When the female moth emerges from the cocoon, she waits there for her wings to dry and to be fertilised by a male. Fertilised or not, she starts laying eggs on the cocoon and anywhere nearby.

    The species is found in

  • Queensland.

    Cyclophragma cyclomela
    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 12.17, p. 390.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Revision of the Australian Hesperiidae,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 27 (1903), p. 183.

    A. Peter Mackey,
    Growth and bioenergetics of the moth Cyclophragma leucosticta Grünberg,
    Oecologia,
    Volume 32, Number 3 (January, 1978), pp. 367-376.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 100.


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    (updated 1 July 2009, 9 January 2023)