Chlenias seminigra Rosenstock, 1885
Black-caped Crest-moth
 (one synonym : Phalera innotata Hampson, 1896)
DIPTYCHINI,   ENNOMINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Ted L. Martin & Stella Crossley

Chlenias seminigra
(Photo: copyright Ted L. Martin)

This Caterpillar is has a pattern of parallel pale and dark green lines, with a red spot on each side of each segment. A particularly wide and pale stripe each side passes over the spiracles which appear a black dots. The head is pale green with two dark stripes each side. The true legs are red. The anal plate is pale brown with dark markings.

The caterpillar feeds on plants in the family

  • FABACEAE.

    Chlenias seminigra
    (Photo: courtesy of Marilyn Hewish, Moths of Victoria: Part 5)

    The adult moth can be dark grey and/or brown, sometimes with striking black markings. The moth rolls its wings across its back rather than folding them tent-like or spreading them out flat like the adult moths of other species in GEOMETRIDAE. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

    Chlenias seminigra
    (Photo: courtesy of Cathy Byrne)

    The species has been found in:

  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania, and
  • South Australia.

    Chlenias seminigra
    (Photo: copyright Ted L. Martin)

    The eggs are pale yellow, smooth, and squarish. They are laid in a row along the edge of a leaf.

    Chlenias seminigra
    (Photo: courtesy of Cathy Byrne)

    The adult moths of the various species in the genus Chlenias are all very variable, and appear to be more variable than the variations between the species. The identification of the specimens pictured here may prove to be wrong when more work is done on this genus.

    Further reading :

    Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria: Part 5 - Satin Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (A),
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2014, pp. 20-21.

    Rudolph Rosenstock,
    Notes on Australian Lepidoptera, with descriptions of new species,
    Annals and Magazine of Natural History,
    Volume 5, Part 16 (1885), p. 430, No. 596.

    Cathy Byrne,
    Characterisation of the Australian Nacophorini and a Phylogeny for the Geometridae from Molecular and Morphological Data,
    Ph.D. thesis, University of Tasmania, 2003.

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    (updated 29 September 2009)