Salma pyrastis

Salma pyrastis (Meyrick, 1887)
(previously known as Stericta pyrastis)
EPIPASCHIINAE, PYRALIDAE, PYRALOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Salma pyrastis
(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Tewantin, Queensland)

This Caterpillar is dark brown, with a broad yellow or orange dorsal stripe, and several white stripes along each side of its body. The caterpillar has a pale brown head. The thorax is dark brown with white spots. The body is covered sparsely in short stiff white hairs. It lives and pupates communally in a silken web of leaves and frass on its foodplant. It feeds on :

Gum Trees ( Eucalyptus, MYRTACEAE ),

and grows to a length of about 3 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult has brown forewings and yellow hind wings. The forewing has a dark tip, and the hind wings have a black scalloped border. It has a wingspan of about 3 cms.

(Specimen: courtesy of The Australian Museum)

The species is found in eastern Australia, including:

Queensland,

New South Wales,

Australian Capital Territory,

Victoria,

Tasmania, and

South Australia.

underside

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, Pl. 8.23, p. 348.

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. 79.

Edward Meyrick,
On Pyralidina from Australia and the South Pacific,
Transactions of The Entomological Society of London,
1887, pp. 190-191.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 187.

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(updated 20 April 2010, 9 March 2025)