Niceteria macrocosma (Lower, 1899)
Showy Geometrid
 (previously known as Satraparchis macrocosma)
DIPTYCHINI,   ENNOMINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Cathy Byrne & Stella Crossley


(Photo from: Moths of Australia, courtesy of Ian F.B. Common)

These Caterpillars are green with an indistinct yellow line along each side. They feed on the leaves of various Gum Trees ( MYRTACEAE ) including :

  • Apple Gum ( Angophora costata ).


    The adult moths have brown and white forewings, and yellow hindwings which have a wide black margin. The moths have a wingspan of about 5 cms.


    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Blackheath, New South Wales)

    The species is found in

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

    It has an annual lifecycle, and the adults fly in late summer and autumn.

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 366.

    Peter Hendry,
    Some notable Geometridae,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 53 (June 2009), pp. 22-25.

    Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria: Part 5,
    Satin Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (A)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2014, pp. 3, 6-7, 26-27.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Volume 24 (1899), pp. 85-86.

    Graham McDonald,
    Weird and Wonderful Moths,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 78 (September 2015), pp. 11-15, fig. 10.

    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. 0, 130.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 68.

    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.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths,
    CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 144.

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    (updated 8 November 2010, 10 August 2024)