The caterpillars grow to a length of about 6 cms. They pupate in a flimsy cocoon amongst the ground litter. The pupa has a length of about 3.5 cms.

(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The adult moths have green or greenish-brown forewings, each having a pale band across the middle, and pale wing-tips. The forewings each have a doubly recurved margin, and a concave hind margin. The moths have dark brown hindwings each with a recurved margin and a vague pale submarginal band. The moths have a wingspan of about 5 cms. The green colour fades to brown in dead specimens.

(Photo: courtesy of Bart Hacobian, Millaa Millaa, Queensland)

The species is found in Australasia, including :

and also Australia in

(Photo: courtesy of Neil Hewett , Cooper Creek Wilderness, North Queensland)

The eggs are laid singly on a foodplant leaf. The eggs are oval and off-white, and develop reddish markings as they mature. The eggs have a length of about 1.6 mm.

egg, magnified
(Photo: courtesy of Carol and Trevor Deane, Whyanbeel, Queensland)

Further reading :

Maxwell S. Moulds, James P. Tuttle and David A. Lane.
Hawkmoths of Australia,
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Series, Volume 13 (2020),
pp. 69-71, Plates 9, 78, 84.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 196.

Lionel Walter Rothschild & Karl Jordan,
A revision of the Lepidopterous family Sphingidae,
Novitates Zoologicae Supplement,
Volume 9 (1903), p. 544, and also Plate 49, fig 14.

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(updated 26 December 2009, 15 February 2015, 12 July 2019, 7 September 2020)