| DIPTYCHINI, ENNOMINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Cathy Byrne & Stella Crossley |
early
instar magnified
(Photo: copyright
Cathy Byrne)
|
| DIPTYCHINI, ENNOMINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Cathy Byrne & Stella Crossley |
early
instar magnified
(Photo: copyright
Cathy Byrne)
Initially this caterpillar is pale brown with dark spots, sparse long hairs, and a reddish head and tail.
Later the caterpillar becomes smooth and green, with a pale yellow line running from tip of a sagging horn on the head, along the back of the body, to the purple pointed tip of the abdomen. The rest of the body is green with yellow spots and red spiracles, and the head is purplish red. The feet and prolegs are yellow.
The Caterpillars feed on the foliage of:
The adult moths have dark orange forewings each with three dark spots.
At rest, the wings are folded over the back so that the hindwings are obscured. The wingspan is about 7 cms.
The eggs are oval and smooth, and laid in a jumbled mass.
Initially they are white, but they become purple as hatching approaches.
The species only occurs in the highlands of Tasmania.
Further reading :
Peter B. McQuillan,
A new genus for Chlenias fucata Felder and Rofenhofer (Lepidoptera:
Geometridae: Ennominae) and a new Tasmanain species,
Journal of the Australian Entomological Society,
Volume 23 (1984), pp. 297-306.
Peter B. McQuillan,
An overview of the Tasmanian geometrid moth fauna
(Lepidoptera: Geometridae) and its conservation status,
Journal of Insect Conservation,
Volume 8 (2004), Parts 2-3, pp. 209-220.
Catherine J. Young,
Characterisation of the Australian Nacophorini and a Phylogeny for the
Geometridae from Molecular and Morphological Data,
Ph.D. thesis, University of Tasmania, 2003.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 23 May 2005)