(one synonym : Charagia celsissima Olliff, 1895) HEPIALIDAE, HEPIALOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
Female
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Perth, Western Australia)
The caterpillars of this species have been found living in tunnels bored into stems of various plants in MYRTACEAE including
The male adult moths are white with a green submarginal line on each forewing.
The females have green forewings, each crossed by two wiggly white lines. The females have orange hind wings. The moths have a wingspan up to 11 cms.
The species is found in
The eggs are white and spherical, each with a diameter of about 0.5 mm. They are laid, and fall randomly everywhere and anywhere, while the female flies or walks about. How first instars find food is unclear.
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 1.4, p. 148.
Thomas J. Simonsen,
Splendid Ghost Moths and their Allies,
A Revision of Australian Abantiades, Oncopera, Aenetus, Archaeoaenetus and Zelotypia (Hepialidae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 12,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2018.
Charles Swinhoe,
Sphinges and Bombyces,
Catalogue of eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera
in the collection of the Oxford University Museum,
Clarendon Press, Part 1 (1892), pp. 288-289, No. 1338.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 19 September 2011, 17 July 2023)