Photo: courtesy of Kelvin K. P. Lim, Dennis H. Murphy, T. Morgany, N. Sivasothi, Peter K. L. Ng,
B. C. Soong, Hugh T. W. Tan, K. S. Tan, & T. K. Tan,
"A Guide to Mangroves of Singapore"
BP Guide to Nature Series published by the Singapore Science Centre, sponsored by British Petroleum, 2001,
Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, The National University of Singapore & The Singapore Science Centre.
The Caterpillars of this species are brown.
They feed on vegetarian detritus in Mangrove swamps
(fruit, leaves, roots, rotting wood).
The caterpillars live in a silk shelter below the high tide level,
so get flooded twice a day.
male
(Photo: courtesy of
Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)
The adult moths are brown.
The males have unusually long wings, and have a long tapering abdomen,
from the tip of which they can evert
coremata.
The females have more rounded wings than the males.
The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.
female
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group,
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics,
University of Guelph)
The species occurs across the Indian Ocean, including
Madagascar,
Singapore,
and also Australia in
Western Australia,
Northern Territory,
Queensland, and
New South Wales.
Further reading :
Philipp C. Zeller,
Lepidoptera Microptera, quae J.A. Wahlberg in caffrorum terra collegit,
Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps-Academiens Nya Handlingar,
Volume 40 (1852), p. 65.
(written 27 January 2013, updated 5 November 2020)
