close-up of head
(Photo: courtesy of David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)

In the last instars: the caterpillar can become yellow or reddish, especially the head and tail.

yellow form
(Photo: courtesy of Trudi Byers, Mt Waverley, Victoria)

The dorsal line only extends along the thorax, and a becomes a series of brown spots on the abdomenal segments, The spiracles are white with red outlines.

red form
(Photo: courtesy of Jenny Holmes, Great Western, Victoria)

The pupa is initially green and brown, and formed buried just under the soil. Later the pupa becomes entirelly brown.

(Photo: courtesy of David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)

The adult moth of this species has pale grey patterned forewings with dark veins. The hindwings are plain white.

natural posture
(Photo: courtesy of David Akers, Won Wron, Victoria)

The natural posture of the moth has the wings wrapped tightly around the body forming a wedge shape. The wingspan of the males is about 5 cms. The wingspan of the females is about 6 cms.

(Photo: copyright Cathy Byrne)

Unusually for Geometrids, it folds its wings tightly along its back when at rest, making a shape that tapers to a point at the end of the abdomen.

(Photo: copyright Cathy Byrne)

The eggs are laid in a close array. Initially they are white with a dark spot, but become darker as hatching approaches. Their shape is roughly spherical with a fine hexagonal pattern embossed on the surface.

eggs magnified
(Photo: copyright Cathy Byrne)

The species has been found in:

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

female, drawing by Rudolf Felder, listed as Teinocladia cuculloides,
Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
Heft IV, Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (1875), plate XCVI, fig. 9,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

Further reading :

Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria: Part 5,
Satin Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (A),
Entomological Society of Victoria,
2014, pp. 5, 18-19, 30-31.

Rudolf Felder,
Atlas der Heterocera Sphingida. Noctuida,
in R. Felder & A.F. Rogenhofer: Reise der Österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde,
Heft IV, Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (1875), p. 9, and also Plate 96, fig. 9.

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. 4-5, 120-121.

Catherine J. Young,
Characterisation of the Australian Nacophorini and a Phylogeny for the Geometridae from Molecular and Morphological Data,
Ph.D. thesis, University of Tasmania, 2003.

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(updated 1 April 2011, 15 May 2023)