Oncopera rufobrunnea Tindale, 1933
 Brown Corby
HEPIALIDAE,   HEPIALOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Oncopera rufobrunnea
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult moths have brown forewings, each with some sparse vague dark markings, and a chequered margin. The hindwings are plain brown. The wingspan of the males is about 5 cms. The wingspan of the females is about 6 cms.

Oncopera rufobrunnea
male, monochrome grey-scale photo by Norman B. Tindale, digitally tinted,
Revision of the Australian Ghost Moths (Lepidoptera Homoneura, Family Hepialidae),
Records of the South Australian Museum, Volume 5 (1933), p. 24, fig. 20,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by South Australian Museum.

The moths emerge in Spring in late afternoon, and take flight after dusk. The males fly up and down a straight linear path, and when they observe a female take off after her. Mating takes place on the ground. The eggs are laid while flying over a vegetated area around where the female herself lived.

The species is found in south-eastern Australia, including:

  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania, and
  • South Australia.

    Oncopera rufobrunnea
    female, monochrome grey-scale photo by Norman B. Tindale    , digitally tinted,
    Revision of the Australian Ghost Moths (Lepidoptera Homoneura, Family Hepialidae),
    Records of the South Australian Museum, Volume 5 (1933), p. 24, fig. 24,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by South Australian Museum.

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, figs. 16.9, 60.4, 60.6, pp. 47, 146.

    Axel Kallies,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 6,
    Ghost Moths - HEPIALIDAE and Allies    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2015, pp. 16-17.

    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), pp. 38-39.

    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.

    Norman B. Tindale,
    Revision of the Australian ghost moths (Lepidoptera Homoneura, Family Hepialidae). Part II,
    Records of the South Australian Museum,
    Volume 5 (1933), pp. 23-25, and figs. 20-27.

    previous
    back
    caterpillar
    Australian
    Australian Butterflies
    butterflies
    Australian
    home
    Lepidoptera
    Australian
    Australian Moths
    moths
    next
    next
    caterpillar

    (written 15 October 2016, updated 2 April 2020)