They bore down through the trunk to the roots, making a borehole with a length up to 1 metre.

pupa
Drawing by Arthur Bartholomew, listed as Zeuzera eucalypti,
Prodromus of Zoology (1861), Plate 30,
courtesy of Museum Victoria

When the caterpillar is fully grown, it bores another upward hole in the soil, from the root up to the surface, which it lines with silk and frass. It pupates at the bottom of this tunnel.

excavated lining of pupal tunnel
Drawing by Arthur Bartholomew, listed as Zeuzera eucalypti,
Prodromus of Zoology (1861), Plate 30,
courtesy of Museum Victoria

After metamorphosis: it climbs up to emerge into world above, leaving the empty pupal case sticking out of the ground.

female
(Photo: courtesy of Wayne Jeffery, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales)

The adult moths have forewings that are speckled grey and brown with two indistinct pale misaligned half streaks, each sometimes having a black mark near the middle. The hindwings are reddish-brown at the base, fading to grey-brown at the margins. The wingspan is up to 20 cms.

close-up of thorax, female
(Photo: courtesy of Wayne Jeffery, Coffs Harbour, New South Wales)

The thorax of the adult moth has an uncanny likeness to the head of a mouse! The 'eyes' of the mouse are the thicker parts of the bluish lines running on either side of the thorax, located just behind the real eyes. One can also see perhaps the face of an old man with a beard. Maybe these likenesses to faces help deter potential predators.

(Photo: courtesy of Peter Marriott, Paynesville, Victoria)

The adults of Endoxyla encalypti have been found around Australia, including

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

female
(Photo: courtesy of Vanessa Mack, Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

underside
(Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

Further reading :

David Carter,
Butterflies and Moths,
Collins Eyewitness Handbooks, Sydney 1992, p. 293.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 271.

Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer,
Sammlung neuer oder wenig bekannter aussereuropäischer Schmetterlinge,
Verzeichniss der in diesem Werke gelieferten Arten nach Reihenfolge ihrer Veroffentlichung,
Series I, Volume 1, Part 3 (1855), p. 58, and figs. 163, 164.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 25.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 93.

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(updated 9 September 2011, 10 August 2024)