Austrocaligula carnea (Sonthonnax, 1899)
(formerly known as Antheraea carnea),
SATURNIIDAE,   BOMBYCOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Austrocaligula carnea
female
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

These adult moths are orange. Each wing has a single brown eyespot in the middle, and a diffuse brown line parallel to the outer margin. There is a pink and black spot at the tip of each forewing. The moths can have a wingspan up to 13 cms.

Austrocaligula carnea
underside
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The eggs are round and cream coloured. They are laid in irregular clusters on random substrates.

The species is found inland in Australia in:

  • Northern Territory, and
  • Queensland.

    The name of this species is thought by some taxonomists to be a junior synonym of Austrocaligula loranthi.

    This species was moved from the genus Opodiphthera to Austrocaligula by Brechlin in 2005, and many Taxonomists disagree with this reassignment. Here, we follow Brechlin in this most recent publication on this family.


    Further reading :

    Ronald Brechlin,
    Einige Anmerkungen zur Gattung Neodiphthera Fletcher, 1982 stat. rev. mit Beschreibung von vier neuen Arten (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae),
    Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo,
    N.F. 26 , Parts 1/2 (2005), pp. 17–29.

    Bernard Laurence d'Abrera,
    Saturniidae Mundi, Automeris Press, 1998.

    David A. Lane & E.D. Edwards,
    The status of Opodiphthera carnea (Sonthonnax) and Opodiphthera loranthi (Lucas) (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) in northern and eastern Australia,
    Australian Entomologist,
    Volume 32, Issue 2 (2005), pp. 55-64.

    L. Sonthonnax,
    Essai de Classification de Lépidoptères,
    Laboratoire d'études de la soie,
    Volume 2 (1899), pp. 47-48, No. 4.


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    (written 4 November 2014, updated 15 September 2019, 21 April 2022)