Hypographa phlegetonaria Guenée, 1857 OENOCHROMINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

These caterpillars are purplish-brown, with a pale dorsal knob on the first abdominal segment. The caterpillars grow to a length of about 5 cms.

eclosed pupal skin
(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

They pupate with no cocoon on the soil surface under dead leaves.

(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

The adult moths of this species are grey-brown, with broad jagged dark lines on each wing. The wings have scalloped edges. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

male, drawing by Achille Guenée, Uranides et Phalénites,
in Boisduval & Guenée, Histoire Naturelle des Insectes; Spécies Général des Lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 9 (1857), Plate 19, fig. 3,
Image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

The species has been found in :

Tasmania.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Steven Dodge, Nowra, New South Wales)

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Further reading :

Achille Guenée,
Uranides et Phalénites,
in Boisduval & Guenée: Histoire Naturelle des Insectes; Spécies Général des Lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 9 (1857), p. 190, No. 293, and also Plate 19, figs. 2,3.

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(updated 20 July 2011, 11 February 2019, 18 June 2021)