Australian EREBIDAE

EREBIDAE of Australia
Underwings, Litter Moths, Fruit-Piercing Moths, Snout Moths
NOCTUOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans,
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

EREBIDAE

eggs

EREBIDAE

caterpillars

EREBIDAE

pupae

EREBIDAE

moths

EREBIDAE

undersides

EREBIDAE

forewings

There are approximately 1,340 named Australian species in EREBIDAE.
Here: our species webpages are listed for convenience in their various subfamilies and a tribe of EREBIDAE :-

AGANAINAE

9 species

ANOBINAE

3 species

ARCTIINAE

300 species

BOLETOBIINAE

79 species

CALPINAE

25 species

CATOCALINI

170 species EREBINAE
except CATOCALINI

100 species EULEPIDOTINAE

3 species HERMINIINAE

26 species HYPENINAE

115 species HYPENODINAE

11 species

HYPOCALINAE

8 species LYMANTRIINAE

75 species PANGRAPTINAE

3 species RIVULINAE

7 species SCOLIOPTERYGINAE

12 species TOXOCAMPINAE

1 species

The EREBIDAE include many pests of tropical crop plants. Some species of this family are semi-loopers. They lack ventral prolegs and loop their bodies when moving. In this way they resemble the caterpillars of the family GEOMETRIDAE.

The caterpillars of most of the subfamilies in EREBIDAE are smooth, lacking obvious hairs. Their bodies are often green, brown or yellow. Two subfamilies have very hairy caterpillars, and these have the full set of prolegs.

Most species of EREBIDAE typically pupate in a sparse cocoon under a leaf of their foodplant or between dead leaves in ground debris.

Note that although the Checklist of Australian Lepidoptera included the subfamilies here in NOCTUIDAE or as separate families in NOCTUOIDEA, following the more recent paper Molecular phylogenetics of Erebidae (Lepidoptera, Noctuoidea) here we list them in EREBIDAE.