The caterpillar grows to a length of about 7 cms. It excavates a small depression in the soil and pupates in a cocoon under a dead leaf pulled over the top. The pupa is brown with a narrow head and thorax. Th pupa has a length of about 4 cms.

female
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Emma Gorge, Western Australia)

The adult moths of this species have pale brown forewings with a number of dark brown markings. The hindwings are plain brown, sometimes pinkish. The head is dark brown. thorax is dark brown with a pale dorsal stripe and two jagged white lateral stripes. The colours on the hairs on the thorax are said to resemble the fur of a tabby cat. The forewings have slightly recurved wingtips, and concave hind-margins. The hindwings each have have a sinuous margin and a pointed tornus. The wingspan is 5-6 cms.

male
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Emma Gorge, Western Australia)

The eggs are off-white and oval, with a length of about 1.6 mm. They are laid singly under leaves of a foodplant.

The species occurs in

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Emma Gorge, Western Australia)

Further reading :

Thomas P. Lucas,
Butterflies and Moths,
Descriptions of two new Butterflies and nine new Sphingidae or Hawk moths found in Queensland,
The Queenslander (Newspaper),
Saturday 9 May 1891, p. 894.

Max S. Moulds, James P. Tuttle and David A. Lane.
Hawkmoths of Australia,
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Series, Volume 13 (2020),
pp. 269-271, Plates 71, 81, 92.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 205.

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(updated 11 October 2008, 12 December 2020)