Varied Wave (previously known as Acidalia optivata) STERRHINAE, GEOMETRIDAE, GEOMETROIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Steve Williams,
Moths of Victoria: Part 3)
These caterpillars are a patchy brown, and are long and thin. They have two pairs of prolegs missing, so walk in a looper fashion. At rest: they stand straight at an angle to the surface that they are on. They probably feed on the leaves of a wide variety of plants.
The pupa is initially greenish, but becomes brown as it matures.
This adult moth has pale brown wings with vague dark zigzag markings, sometimes with a black dot near the centre of each wing, and with a black dot on the margin at the end of each vein. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.
The eggs are oval with a ribbed and minutely pitted surface. The eggs are laid in strings. Initially they are white, and acquire pink spots as they develop. They darken as hatching approaches.
The species has been found in:
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. 105.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria: Part 3,
Waves & Carpets - GEOMETROIDEA (C),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2011, pp. 8-9.
Francis Walker,
Geometrites,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 23 (1861), p. 780, No. 247.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(updated 18 April 2011, 8 October 2013, 1 January 2015, 18 December 2017, 7 June 2018, 30 May 2020)