About 100 eggs are laid by the female moth, which hatch in a few days. The young caterpillars bore into the developing shoots of the food plant, and work their way down onto more mature foliage. After a few weeks, they pupate, and after another few weeks, the adult moths emerge.

(Photo: courtesy of Halina Steele, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory)

The moth is white with variable faint brown markings, and has spiny legs and multilobed wings.

underside
(Photo courtesy of Michael Bedingfield, Thawa, Australian Capital Territory)

Starting in 1993: this species was introduced deliberately from France into Australia, particularly by Craig Clarke at the University of Adelaide, in order to control the Horehound weeds. These weeds have flowers with a curved spiny calyx, and develop into burrs as the fruit ripens. These burrs cause problems in the wool industry because they lodge in the fleeces of sheep.

The Horehound Plume Moth is endemic to Europe, including

but now may also be found in

drawing by John Curtis, listed as Pterophorus spilodactylus,
British Entomology, London, 1827, Vol. 6, Plate 161,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

Further reading :

John Curtis,
Illustrations and descriptions of the genera of insects found in Great Britain and Ireland,
British Entomology,
London, 1827, Vol. 6, Plate 161.

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(updated 17 July 2010, 28 May 2018, 27 October 2020)