Pollanisus calliceros

Pollanisus calliceros Turner, 1926
PROCRIDINAE, ZYGAENIDAE, ZYGAENOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Pollanisus calliceros
male
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult male moth of this species has black wings, with the forewings having a green iridescence. The head is shiny green with a black collar. The thorax and abdomen are shiny green. The antennae are very pectinated. The wingspan of the male is about 1.8 cms.

The female is black with a green iridescence, has vestigial wings, and is flightless. The female has thread-like antennae, and a wide sheaf of hairs on the tip of the abdomen.

The subspecies calliceros Turner 1926, has been found in:

New South Wales,

Victoria, and

Tasmania.

The subspecies azurea Tarmann 2005, is found in uplands of northern and central New South Wales.

Further Reading:

Gerhard M. Tarmann,
Zygaenid moths of Australia,
CSIRO Publishing 2004, pp. 13-14, 32, 47, 59, 65, 106-107, 116, 125, pls. 31, 32.

A. Jefferis Turner,
New and little-known Tasmanian Lepidoptera.,
courtesy of the
Library Open Repository, University of Tasmania Library,
Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania,
1925, pp. 115-116.