(one synonym : Graphiphora reclusa Walker, 1857) Variable Cutworm NOCTUINAE, NOCTUIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
male
(Photo: courtesy of the
Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)
This brown grub of a Caterpillar lives under the ground in daytime, emerging at night to feed. The caterpillar is a pest in Tasmania on:
The caterpillars grow to a length of about 3 cms. They pupate underground to a depth of about 8cms. The pupa is brown with a length of about 2 cms.
The adult male moths are fawn with several dark spots on the forewings.
The females are fawn with a more complex pattern than that of the males.
Underneath, they have a large dark spot at the tip of each wing which is more prominent under the hindwings. The moths have a wingspan of about 3 cms.
The species has been found in
The name Agrotis porphyricollis seems to be currently applied to two different this species. This situation needs more study.
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 64.
Achille Guenée,
Noctuidae,
in Boisduval & Guenée : Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 5 (1852), p.259, No. 410.
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. 166.
Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, pp. 30-31.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 15 April 2013, 10 January 2023)