| SMERINTHINAE, SPHINGIDAE, BOMBYCOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Jacqueline de Vaan, Kata Tjuta, Northern Territory)
|
| SMERINTHINAE, SPHINGIDAE, BOMBYCOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Jacqueline de Vaan, Kata Tjuta, Northern Territory)
The mature Caterpillars of this species are grey or black, and covered in white dots. The caterpillars have a white line along each side below a set of orange spiracles. The head can be plain black, or have three white vertical stripes. The tail spike is black, short, and thin.
The caterpillars have been found feeding on
The caterpillars can grow to a length of about 6 cms. To pupate, each caterpillar burrows in to the soil to a depth of about 15 cms. Then the caterpillar creates a hollow cell lined with hardened mucus. The pupa has a length of about 2.5 cms.
The adult moths have streaky grey wings. The abdomen has a black dorsal line, and alternating black, grey, and pink and/or yellow bands along each side. The moths have a wingspan of about 5 cms.
The species has been found in
Further reading :
Maxwell S. Moulds & Tomas Melichar,
A new species of hawk moth in the genus Coenotes Rothschild & Jordan from Australia (Sphingidae: Smerinthinae: Sphingulini),
The European Entomologist,
Volume 5 (2014), pp. 11-17.
Maxwell S. Moulds, James P. Tuttle and David A. Lane.
Hawkmoths of Australia,
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Series, Volume 13 (2020),
pp. 94-95, Plates 17, 78, 85.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(written 29 January 2015, updated 28 February 2020)