(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

The caterpillars grow to a length of about 3.5 cms. They pupate in a voluminous white cocoon between leaves of the food plant. The pupa is white with dark markings where the wings develop. The pupa has a length of about 2 cms.

male
(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

Both sexes of this moth have very variable forewings, sometimes brown with dark, complex or simple, markings, or sometimes off-white with irregular dark patches. The hindwings are plain pale brown or white.

female
(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

Both sexes have pectinated antennae, but the pectinations of the male are more than twice as long as those of the female.

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

The species is found in:

Further reading

Embrik Strand,
Indoaustralische, papuanische und polynesische Spinnen des Senckenbergischen Museums,
gesammelt von Dr E. Wolf, Dr J. Elbert u. a.
Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Hanseatischen Südsee-Expedition 1909,
Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft ,
Volume 36, Part 2 (1915), pp. 179-274.

Embrik Strand,
Bombyces and Sphinges of the Indo-Australian Region,
in Adalbert Seitz (ed.):
The Macrolepidoptera of the World,
Stuttgart : Alfred Kernen Verlag, Volume 10 (1933), p. 292, and also Plate 38, fig a2.

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(updated 11 February 2010, 22 December 2012, 17 April 2020)