(one synonym: Epipyrops doddi Rothschild, 1906) EPIPYROPIDAE, ZYGAENOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of
Ian McMillan,
Imbil, Queensland)
This moth was originally bred from carnivorous caterpillars, parasitic on several species of
The early instars of the caterpillar are orange and red, but later become white, and coated with a waxy covering. When mature, the caterpillars leave their host, and form a white cocoon on a nearby blade of grass or some such. The cocoon resembles the waxy coating of a Fulgorid insect.
The adult moth has dark brown wings which look speckled because the wing scales detach very easily with handling. The forewings are twice the span of the hindwings. The wingspan is about 1 cm.
The species occurs in
Further reading :
Robert Cyril Layton Perkins,
Leaf-hoppers and their natural enemies (Pt. II. Epipyropidae) Lepidoptera,
Bulletin of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experimental Station,
Entomological Series 1 (1905) p. 82, No. 1.
Lionel Walter Rothschild,
On a new parasitic Tineid moth from Queensland discovered by F.P. Dodd,
Novitates Zoologicae,
Volume 13 (1906), pp. 162-169.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(written 11 April 2019, updated 7 June 2020, 12 May 2021)