Pseudanapaea denotata (Walker, 1865)
 (previously known as Anapaea denotata)
LIMACODIDAE,   ZYGAENOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Kelly Brabrook, Scarborough, Queensland)

These Caterpillars are brown with a floppy horn on the head, and a fleshy spike on the tail. They have no obvious legs, but move in a slug-like fashion. They grow to a length of about 2 cms. The caterpillars go walk-about to find somewhere to pupate.


cocoon
(Photo: courtesy of Kelly Brabrook, Scarborough, Queensland)

The caterpillar pupates between leaves in a hard spherical cocoon, that is pale brown with dark vein-like markings. The cocoon has a diameter of about 1 cm.


male
(Photo: courtesy Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult moths of are pale brown, with two groups of pale-edged darker brown spots forming a vague diagonal line across the middle of each forewing. The hindwings are plain brown.


female
(Photo: courtesy Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The patterns on the wings of the male and female moths are similar. The wingspan is about 3 cms.


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

The species occurs in

  • Papua,

    and has been reported widely in Australia, including

  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria,
  • South Australia,
  • Western Australia,

    but it is thought that Pseudanapaea specimens found in eastern Australia south of the Queensland border listed as Pseudanapaea denotata may be misidentifications of Pseudanapaea transvestita, and the specimens from Western Australia are possible misidentifications of Pseudanapaea dentifascia, but it is also possible that all these names have been mis-applied to other so-far unnamed species in the genus Pseudanapaea.


    underside
    (Photo: copyright of Brett and Marie Smith, at Ellura Sanctuary, South Australia)

    Further reading :

    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), p. 74.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 106.

    Francis Walker,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 32, Supplement 2 (1865), p. 474.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 113.

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    (updated 1 November 2010, 19 February 2018, 26 January 2020)