Pollanisus subdolosa (Meyrick, 1865)
(previously known as Procris subdolosa)
PROCRIDINAE,   ZYGAENIDAE,   ZYGAENOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Pollanisus subdolosa
male, with sensilla on antennae opened

(Photo : courtesy of Laura Levens, Upper Beaconsfield, Victoria)

These Caterpillars are pale brown with a darker head with a few dark spots along each side of the abdomen. The bodies have sparse bristles. The caterpillars have been found feeding on

  • Climbing Guinea Flower ( Hibbertia scandens, DILLENIACEAE ).

    Pollanisus subdolosa
    male, with sensilla on antennae folded
    Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, from
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art

    The adult moth is a metallic dark blue with a yellow thorax. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms. The male moths have been observed to have to have the ability to fold or unfold the sensilla on their antennae.

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

    The eggs are pale yellow and elliptical. They are laid in irregular arrays on a foodplant leaf, and covered sparsely in hairs from the abdomen of the female.

    The species has been found as the subspecies clara Tarmann 2005, in:

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales

    and the subspecies subdolosa Walker 1865, in:

  • Victoria.

    Pollanisus subdolosa
    underside
    (Photo : courtesy of Laura Levens, Upper Beaconsfield, Victoria)


    Further Reading:

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 297.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 220.

    Francis Walker,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 31, Supplement part 1 (1865), p. 62.

    Gerhard M. Tarmann,
    Zygaenid moths of Australia,
    CSIRO Publishing 2005, pp. 59, 66-67, 86-89, 91-96, 98-101, 128, pls. 13, 64.


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    (updated 22 December 2012, 14 July 2019)