![]() | (formerly known as Trichetra mesomelas) THAUMETOPOEINAE, NOTODONTIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
brown saddles, brown tufts, white lateral hairs
(Photo: courtesy of
Robin Sharp,
Korong Vale, Victoria)
These Caterpillars have a red or brown tuft with a brown saddle on each segment, and a pencil of dark hairs sticking up forwards from behind the head.
The caterpillars have abundant lateral hairs which can be white or yellow.
The caterpillars have been recorded feeding on
The caterpillars pupate in a cocoon covered in frass and debris, attache to the underside of a leaf of the foodplant.
The adult moths have white or brown wings, sometimes with a scattering of black speckles. For females, the head and thorax are covered in hair which is dark brown on top shading to pale brown at each side. The females have black hairs along the abdomen and also black hairs around the tip, unlike the similar moth Trichiocercus sparshalli, which has brown hairs around the tip of the abdomen.
Males have totally white hair on the head, thorax, and abdomen. The moths have a wingspan of about 4 cms. Both sexes readliy lose hair from the thorax revealing brown shiny skin.
When threatened: the moths lie down and curl the abdomen under the body. This display is perhaps 'playing dead'.
The species has been found in Australia in
Further reading :
Francis Walker,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 4 (1855), p. 845, No. 1.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(written 12 November 2014, updated 5 January 2024)