ALT="Iropoca rotundata">
cocoon
(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

The cocoon is white and incorporates the hairs of the caterpillar.

Male
(Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris, Morwell Park, Victoria)

The adult moths are dimorphic.

The male is off-white with a pattern of dark brown markings on its forewings, and plain brown hind wings. Its body is covered in orange hair. There is a tranparent aereole on each forewing. The male moth has a wingspan of about 4 cms.

Female
(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

The female has only vestigial wings, and cannot fly. The female looks like a big ball of off-white hair. She is larger than the male, with a length of about 2.5 cms.

Male, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Joan Fearn, Batemans Bay, New South Wales)

The species is found in

Mating pair
(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

The female stays with the cocoon from which she emerged, emitting pheromones to attract a male. She lays her eggs among the hairs of the cocoon.

Eggs, amongst the hairs of the female's cocoon
(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

The eggs are round and white, with a dark spot at one end.

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, figs. 43.5, 43.6, p. 428.

Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria: part 2,
Tiger Moths and their Allies - Noctuoidea (A),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2009, pp. 18-19.

Francis Walker,
Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 4 (1855), p. 851, No. 7.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 178.

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(updated 2 September 2011, 22 July 2015, 16 February 2019, 8 March 2021)