Black-banded Wedge-moth (one synonym : Chlenias umbraticaria Guenée, 1857) DIPTYCHINI, ENNOMINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Cathy Byrne & Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Cathy Byrne)
This Caterpillar is initially green with yellow spots, white spiracles with dark outlines, and has red true legs.
Later its body becomes yellow, with a partial dark line along the middle of the back, retaining the black and white spiracles, and has a dark head.
Later still it becomes reddish-brown, with a partial dark line along the middle of the back, again retaining the black and white spiracles.
The caterpillar feeds on the foliage of :
The adult moth has grey forewings, with a broad pale stripe along the each wing, and a broad irregular dark band across the middle. The hindwings are mainly white with black wingtips.
The resting pose is unusual for Geometrids. The hairs on the thorax make a double crest that it can project forward over the head, and the moth folds its wings tightly along its back, making a wedge shape that tapers to a point at the end of the abdomen.
The underside of each hindwing is off-white with a broad dark band along the margin. The wingspan is about 5 cms.
The eggs are white with a dark dimple in the top, and are roughly spherical with a fine hexangonal embossed pattern. They are laid in a regular array.
The species is found over the south-eastern quarter of Australia, including
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 34.13, pp. 67, 365.
Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria: Part 5 - Satin Moths and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (A),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2014, pp. 30-31.
Francis Walker,
Geometrites,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 11 (1857), p. 621, No. 1.
Cathy Byrne,
Characterisation of the Australian Nacophorini and a Phylogeny for the
Geometridae from Molecular and Morphological Data,
Ph.D. thesis, University of Tasmania, 2003.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 26 September 2010, 7 May 2023)