Eloasa bombycoides (R. Felder & Rogenhofer, 1874)
 (one synonym: Thosea erecta Swinhoe, 1902)
LIMACODIDAE,   ZYGAENOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Eloasa bombycoides
(Photo: courtesy of Wayne Martin, Aramac, Queensland)

The moths have forewings each with variable chestnut brown and grey areas, usually with a thin white diagonal line. The hindwings are pale brown. The undersides are plain pink. The moths have a wingspan of about 2 cms.

Eloasa bombycoides
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The species has been found in

  • Western Australia,
  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland, and
  • South Australia.

    Eloasa bombycoides
    male, drawing by Felder & Rogenhofer, listed as Lethocephala bombycoides    ,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (1874), Tafel CXXXIII, Fig. 14,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    Further reading :

    Baron Cajetan & Rudolf Felder,
    Zoologischer Theil,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858, 1859,
    Part 9, Band 2, Abtheilung 2, Part 2 (1874), p. 6, and also Plate 83, fig. 14.

    Charles Swinhoe,
    New species of eastern and Australian Heterocera,
    The Annals and Magazine of Natural History,
    Series 7, Volume 9 (1902), p. 418.

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    (written 29 October 2018, updated 4 February 2023)