Mnesampela heliochrysa (Lower, 1893)
Golden-winged Gum Moth
(previously known as Onychodes heliochrysa)
DIPTYCHINI,   ENNOMINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Cathy Byrne & Stella Crossley

Mnesampela heliochrysa
(Photo: copyright Cathy Byrne)

These Caterpillars have a humped back. They are brown with black spiracles, yellow spots and sparse hairs. The caterpillars feed on the foliage of :

  • various Gum Trees ( Eucalyptus species, MYRTACEAE ).

    Mnesampela heliochrysa
    (Photo: copyright Cathy Byrne)

    The adult moths have brown forewings with variable dark markings. The hindwings are yellow, sometimes with partial brown bands along the margins The moths repose with the wings held across the back like a tent. The wingspan is about 6 cms.

    Mnesampela heliochrysa
    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Marilyn Hewish, Moths of Victoria: Part 5)

    Mnesampela heliochrysa
    eggs magnified
    (Photo: copyright Cathy Byrne)

    The eggs are laid in an irregular array. They are oval, and coloured dull red, and covered in tiny pimples.

    The species is found in the mountains of

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria, and
  • Tasmania.

    Mnesampela heliochrysa
    showing wing undersides
    (Photo: courtesy of Marilyn Hewish, Moths of Victoria: Part 5)


    Further reading :

    Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria: Part 5 - Satin Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (A),
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2014, pp. 6-7, 32-33.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Descriptions of new Australian Heterocera,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 17 (1893), p. 288.

    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 17 September 2011, 11 January 2016, 19 April 2019)