empty cocoon covered in adhering soil,
and showing part of pupal skin where the adult moth emerged.
(Photo: courtesy of Lara Bullen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

The mature caterpillar burrows underground to pupate. The pupa is formed in a spherical cocoon.

(Photo: courtesy of Dianne Clarke, Mapleton, Queensland)

The adults are brown. The forewings each have a white patch at the wingtip and a white pattern along the hind margin.

(Photo: courtesy of Lara Bullen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

The forewing margins are doubly chequered. The hindwings are plain brown with chequered margins.

(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney)

The undersides are dark brown shsding to pale brown at the margins. The underside margins are chequered. The moths have a wingspan of about 5 cms.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Lara Bullen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

The species has been found over much of mainland Australia, including

close up of head
(Photo: courtesy of Lara Bullen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pls. 8.10, 25.6, p. 302.

Harriet, Helena, and Alexander W. Scott,
Australian Lepidoptera and their Transformations,
Volume 1 (1864), pp. 19-20, and also Plate 6 (lower left)

Francis Walker,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 4 (1855), p. 851.

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(updated 13 September 2012, 25 November 2023)