Ragged Geometrid DIPTYCHINI, ENNOMINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Steve Williams,
Moths of Victoria: Part 5)
These Caterpillars initially are smooth and dark brown, with a knob on the tail. Later instars became either green or reddish-brown. They walk by looping, as they are missing three pairs of prolegs.
The caterpillars in captivity preferred to eat the foliage of
brown form of caterpillar forming its cocoon | naked pupa extracted from inside a cocoon |
Photos: courtesy of Steve Williams, Moths of Victoria: Part 5 |
The caterpillars pupated in a loose cocoon in the ground debris.
The adult moths have dark brown forewings, with unevenly scalloped margins. The hindwings are pale brown darkening toward the tornus, each hindwing with a short white-edged dark line by the tornus. The first abdominal segment is black. The wingspan is about 4.5 cms.
In its natural posture, the moth often holds the tip of the abdomen curled upward.
The eggs are minutely pitted and ovoid, and are laid in loose clusters. Initially the eggs are pale green but as hatching approaches, they become red, then dark purplish-brown.
The species has been found in:
Further reading:
Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria: Part 5,
Satin Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (A),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2014, pp. 6-7, 24-25.
A. Jefferis Turner,
New Australian Lepidoptera, with synonymic and other notes,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 30 (1906), p. 132.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 29 April 2010, 6 June 2014, 19 December 2015, 3 March 2021, 28 August 2022)