Western Rain Moth formerly known as Pielus hydrographus HEPIALIDAE, HEPIALOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Wandoo State Forest, Western Australia)
These adult moths are grey-brown with two variable white flashes, and complex labyrinthine dark lines on the forewings. The hindwings are plain brown.
The moths have unipectinate antennae. The male moths have a typical wingspan of 15 cms.
The female moths have a fatter abdomen than the males, and have a typical wingspan of 20 cms. The moths emerge, en masse, during the first major autumn rains. The males only live for about two days, and the females for about 4 days.
The species is found in
Further reading :
Rudolf Felder,
Zoologischer Theil: Lepidoptera,
Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), p. 8, and also
Plate 80, fig. 3.
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, pp. 77, 190, 232, Plates 9, 43.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(written 26 March 2015, updated 24 January 2020)