(one synonym : Crambus trivittatus Zeller, 1863) CRAMBINAE, CRAMBIDAE, PYRALOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, from
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art
This Caterpillar is pale brown with a darker head and pairs of dark spots along the back. It grows to a length of about 2 cms. It lives in the soil in a silk-lined tunnel. It feeds on :
It sometimes can become a pest on pastures.
The adult moth has forewings with brown and silvery white longitudinal stripes. The hindwings are silky and buff coloured. However, when the moth is holding onto a vertical blade of grass with its wings wrapped around its body, the shiny stripes make a good camouflage. The moth has a wing span of about 3 cms.
The species is found over most of Australia, including
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 8.34, pp. 52, 80, 351.
Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), pp. 82-83.
Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 28.
Edward Donovan,
General Illustration of Entomology,
An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of
New Holland, New Zealand, New Guinea, Otaheite and other
Islands in the Indian, Southern and Pacific Oceans,
London (1805), Part 1, p. 180, and also
Plate on p. 178.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 12 January 2012, 22 May 2021)