| Textured Emerald (one synonym : Hypochroma cetraria Felder and Rogenhofer, 1875) GEOMETRINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Peter Marriott & Stella Crossley |
male
(Photo: courtesy of Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria: Part 4)
The adult moths of this species are varied in their colours, from an earthy grey to rich deep green, with a complex pattern of zigzag lines. The beautiful green colour in life of some specimens usually quickly fades when the moth dies. The ones in the Museum collection in Melbourne are all yellowish and the one illustrated in Common is also quite faded. If exposed to the light this colour change occurs in a year, and no specimens over five years have retained the green colour. The moths are also richly textured with various tufts on the body. The margin of each hindwing is scalloped.
The underside is pale brown, with a broad dark submarginal band and a dark central spot on each wing. The females are paler but larger than the males. Females have a wingspan of up to 4 cms. Males have a wingspan of about 3 cms.
The species occurs along the east coast of Australia, including:
The moths are on the wing from November through to April in both rural and suburban situations, and they often come to nocturnal lights.
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pls. 11.9, 27.1, p. 372.
Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer,
Zoologisher Theil,
Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), p. 12, and also
Plate 125, figs. 7, 7a, and also
Plate 126, fig. 14.
Achille Guenée,
in Boisduval & Guenée: Uranides et Phalénites,
Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
Volume 9 (1857), p. 281, No. 450, and also
Plate 6, fig. 3.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria: Part 4,
Emeralds and Allies - GEOMETROIDEA (B),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2012, pp. 28-29.
 caterpillar |  butterflies |  Lepidoptera |  moths |  caterpillar |
(updated 28 June 2013, 6 August 2017)