Cerura multipunctata Bethune-Baker, 1904
 (also known as Kamalia multipunctata)
NOTODONTINAE,   NOTODONTIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

The caterpillars of this species are green with pale grey patches on the head, the middle of the back, and the tail. The last pair of prolegs, the claspers, have evolved into long filaments that can be whipped about or held curved back over the body. The caterpillar can also squirt formic acid from glands near the head.

The caterpillars are expected to feed on plants in:

  • SALICACEAE.


    (Photo: courtesy of Cris Lane, Bellenden Ker, Far North Queensland)

    The adult moths have forewings which are white with black spots all over them. The hindwings are white or grey, with variable black markings.


    female
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Queensland)

    The female moths have slightly feathery antennae, and a wingspan of about 9 cms. The males have densely feathery antennae, narrower forewings than the females, and have a wingspan of about 7 cms.


    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Queensland)

    The species is found in

  • New Guinea,

    and in Australia in

  • Queensland.


    Male, Photo by George Thomas Bethune-Baker,
    New Lepidoptera from British New Guinea, Novitates Zoologicae,
    Volume 11 (1904), Plate VI, fig. 9,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Natural History Museum Library, London.

    Further reading :

    George Thomas Bethune-Baker,
    New Lepidoptera from British New Guinea,
    Novitates Zoologicae,
    Volume 11 (1904), p. 381, No. 29, and also Plate 6, fig. 9.

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 421.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, pp. 173-174.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths,
    CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 175.

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    (updated 22 July 2013, 24 April 2023)