in the plant family LAURACEAE.

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

The forewings of the adult moths are black with several rows of white spots. The hind wings are black with an irregular orange patch. The abdomen is orange on top and black underneath, with white transverse bands.

male, drawing by Baron Feisthamel, in C.P.T. Laplace:
Voyage autour du monde par les mers de l'Inde et de Chine exécuté sur la Corvette 'La Favorite' pendant les années 1830-32,
Supplement (1839), Plate 5, fig. 1.

The males have a curved transparent 'window' in each forewing. They also make a clicking-whistling sound when flying. This is made in flight by a ribbed area on the forewing rubbing against a small protrusion. The noise is probably used to attract females.

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

The species occurs in

female: underside
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Perth, Western Australia)

male: underside
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

Further reading :

John Alcock, Darryl T. Gwynne and Ian R. Dadour,
Acoustic signaling, territoriality, and mating in whistling moths, Hecatesia thyridion (Agaristidae),
Journal of Insect Behavior,
Volume 2, Number 1 (January 1989), pp. 27-37.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 22.26, pp. 47, 50, 464.

Joachim François Philibert Julien Baron Feisthamel,
Lépidoptères nouveaux recueillis pendant ce voyage,
in Cyrille Pierre Theodore Laplace :
Voyage autour du monde par les mers de l'Inde et de Chine exécuté sur la Corvette 'La Favorite' pendant les années 1830-32,
Paris, A. Bertrand, Supplement (1839), pp. 20-21, and also Plate 5, fig. 1.

Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 8,
Night Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA(B),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2017, pp. 32-33.

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian Lepidoptera

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(updated 19 November 2011, 21 February 2020)