Anaxidia lactea Swinhoe, 1892
 (one synonym : Susica aerogramma Lower, 1915)
LIMACODIDAE,   ZYGAENOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Anaxidia lactea
(Photo: courtesy of Nicholas John Fisher, Lismore, New South Wales)

The Caterpillars of this species are green with a broad white dorsal stripe, and a narrow white stripe along each side Each each side of segment has a fleshy spike bearing stinging hairs. The first and last abdominal segments each have a pair of black spikes bearing stinging hairs.

Anaxidia lactea
(Photo: copyright of Uwe Path, Alice Springs, Northern Territory)

The adult moths are off-white, with plain hindwings, and with a black diagonal zig-zag line across each forewing. The wingspan is about 3 cms.

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

The species occurs in

  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Further reading :

    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. 74.

    Charles Swinhoe,
    Sphinges and Bombyces,
    Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the collection of the Oxford University Museum,
    Clarendon Press, Part 1 (1892), p. 231, No. 1087.

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    (updated 28 May 2013, 14 April 2017, 13 March 2021)