Order VI — Lepidoptera. — Butterflies and Moths
Butterflies and moths are scale winged insects, and are among the giants of the insect world; they can be defined as insects with two pairs of membranous wings well adapted for extended flight, clothed with scales overlapping each other like the slates on the roof of a house, flattened and rounded on the surface of the wings, but more or less hair-like upon the body. The head is usually provided with a tubular proboscis or mouth, that can be curled up like a watch spring when at rest, and is admirably adapted for sucking up the honey from flowers when expanded.
The caterpillars may be smooth and naked, or thickly clothed with spines or hair; with few exceptions they feed upon the foliage or wood of plants: after undergoing a series of moults they either spin a cocoon, bury themselves in the ground, or (if wood borers) close themselves up in the burrow where they undergo a complete metamorphosis. If the larva of a butterfly, the caterpillar attaches itself to a twig by the tip of its tail and casts the larval skin, which slips off, leaving the naked transformed pupa simply enclosed in a stout, close-fitting pupal jacket. Some species of moths appear in such numbers at times that they do a great deal of damage to plant life, and are very serious pests.
Lepidoptera on account of their beauty and size have always been very popular with entomologists, and large numbers have been collected from all parts of the world, so that this is one of the best known orders. Sharp estimates that 50,000 species are described, and every year adds to this long list.
They are divided into two great groups, somewhat artificial, but definable as Rhopalocera, butterflies; and Heterocera, moths.
Rhopalocera. — Butterflies
The typical butterflies are usually slender-bodied insects, with filiform and more or less clubbed antennae, delicate legs, and large richly tinted wings; they fly about in the bright sunlight, visiting flowers and feasting upon the nectar that they find in the blooms. They have large compound eyes so that they can see very well; and the slender tubular mouth is very highly developed in all butterflies. The eggs are laid upon the food plant: the caterpillars are generally more or less elongated, and naked or covered with scattered tubercles rather than hairy; when full grown they attach themselves to the under side of a twig or leaf by the tip of the abdomen. Some groups are furnished with a silken girdle round the middle attached at each end to the leaf or twig; and another section roll themselves up in leaves. They do not form a cocoon, but as the larval skin slips off, it reveals the regular pupal form fitted with a skin-like jacket through which the indistinct lines of the rudimentary wings, legs and antennae can be traced. The pupa may remain in this quiescent state for several months before the butterfly splits the skin and emerges, a perfect, fully developed insect.
As many of our butterflies have an extended range, some of them were originally described from other countries, and when captured here were named as new species; so that a good deal of confusion has existed in the proper identification of some of our common species as to whether they were Australian or only varieties of foreign species. In 1805 Donovan figured some of our commonest species in his “Insects of New Holland.” After Kirby’s “Catalogue of Rhopalocera” was published in 1871, Masters compiled and issued a list of our Australian species. In 1878 Semper published his list of Australian species; and in 1891 Miskin produced his “Catalogue of the Australian Butterflies,” in which he included and described some new species (No. 1, Annals of the Queensland Museum); this remained our working list until Waterhouse published his “Catalogue of the Rhopalocera of Australia” as No. 1 Memoir of the New South Wales Naturalists’ Club 1903. In Waterhouse’s list a great many changes have been made in the genera and species; a number of our well-known names have vanished, with very little explanation; for example, Pieris teutonia, our common white, appears under the name of Belenois java; this is unavoidable to a certain extent in bringing Catalogues up to date, but is very confusing to beginners in the work of classification.
For a list of the writers upon, and references to our butterflies, the student is referred to Waterhouse’s Catalogue.
I am indebted to Messrs. Anderson and Spry for notes on the life histories of some of the southern species described in their “Victorian Butterflies” (Melbourne 1893).
Family 1. Brush-footed Butterflies — Nymphalidae
This group comprises a number of large or medium sized butterflies that are known as “Fritillaries,” “Emperors,” “Admirals,” and many other popular names in England, and are generally brightly coloured; many have a very wide range over the world. The fore-legs of both sexes are imperfect, the male with one or two, the female with four or five tarsal joints. The larvae are usually spiny, or clothed with hairy warts; and the pupae are suspended by the tail. Sharp places them in eight sub-families, four of which are well represented in Australia.
The Danainae are brightly coloured butterflies of a general reddish brown tint with blackish markings; the larvae are smooth cylindrical caterpillars with the tips of the body ornamented with a fleshy tail. The Genus Danais contains six species, of which the best known in Eastern Australia is the “Monarch” or “Brown Gypsy,” originally a North American insect but now almost world wide in its range; it is known under at least four names, and though usually figured as Danais archippus, its correct name is Danais menippe. The handsome banded black and cream coloured larva feeds upon the introduced “bladder-weed” (Gomphocarpus fruticosus), and turns into a beautiful pale green pupa with metallic markings. This large, deep reddish brown and black lined butterfly is too well known to require description.
Family Pieridae.
1. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Eggs on foliage.
2. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Eggs enlarged.
3. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Caterpillar.
4. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Caterpillar (enlarged).
5. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Pupa (enlarged).
6. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Pupa on leaf.
7. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Showing upper surface.
8. Pieris teutonia (Fabr.). Showing under surface.
This butterfly is now known under the name of Belenois java (Sparrman).]
D. petilia, a much smaller butterfly, has broader white markings on the tip of the fore wings and none round the edges of the hind pair. It has a wide range over Australia, across Asia to Europe. The caterpillar is of a lavender colour and feeds upon the cotton grass; it transforms into a beautiful green chrysalis marked with scattered golden spots and a band of the same colour round the abdomen. D. hamata, a fine pearly blue and black species, is recorded by Olliff from Cape York to as far south as Shoalhaven, N.S.W., but is a rare insect in the south.
Fourteen species of the Genus Euploea are described, of which E. corinna is a mottled black and white species, very abundant in sheltered gullies in N. Queensland, also ranging southward to Sydney. The larva feeds on a creeper (Mandevillia); it is a slender, dull-coloured caterpillar with four pairs of fleshy tentacles on the back. The pupa is suspended to a leaf, and is a rich, bright metallic silver.
The Acraeinae contains a single species, belonging to the typical Genus Acraea, which is found from North Queensland to Sydney. A. andromacha measures 2¾ inches across the wings; is blackish brown; the fore wings are transparent with dull brown markings; the hind pair are opaque, creamy white, edged with brown; it always looks as though badly rubbed. It has a range from New Guinea, Fiji, and Samoa into Australia. The yellowish brown caterpillar clothed with branched fleshy spines, feeds upon the passion vine, and is not uncommon in Sydney gardens.
The Nymphalinae comprise a number of handsome butterflies, which differ from the previous ones in having the cells of both pairs of wings open or imperfectly closed. The larvae are very variable, some being slender hairy caterpillars or armed with spines and tubercles; others are short and cylindrical, furnished with horns upon the head.
The fine East Indian Genus Cethosia is represented by three species: the Crimson-winged Butterfly, C. cydippe, is not an uncommon insect in North Queensland frequenting the clearings on the edge of the scrub; it measures 3½ inches across the large rounded wings, the hind margin of the second pair being deeply scalloped; the central portion of both surrounding the body is bright red, the outer deep purple, with white markings toward the tips of the front pair; and the under surface of both is barred and spotted. Cynthia ada, ranging from Brisbane to Thursday Island, is a large light ochreous yellow butterfly, with a dark line diagonally crossing both wings from the middle of the fore pair to the level of the tip of the body; a double band of crenulated markings encircle the wings; and there are a pair of eye spots on the hind ones. Cupha prosope is the representative of another northern genus ranging from the Richmond River N.S.W. to Thursday Island. It is a medium sized butterfly with dark orange coloured wings, the front pair tipped and edged with black; all the under-surface is pale orange yellow, mottled and barred, with a row of eye spots round the edge of the wings. The Australian Fritillary, Argynnis inconstans, measures about 3 inches across the wings; it is of a uniform dull yellow colour with a double row of black spots along the edge of the wings, with the inner portion covered with an irregular pattern of spots and dashes. It is common along the cleared tracks in the Queensland jungle, and has been recorded from as far south as Hunter River, N.S. Wales. Pyrameis kershawi, figured and described by McCoy from Victoria, is found throughout Australia, and is so closely related to the “Painted Lady,” P. cardui, of Europe, that it was until lately only considered a variety. It measures under 2 inches across the wings; its general colour is dull brown mottled and barred with black and white. The larvae feed upon “everlastings” (Heliochrysum) and the introduced cape weed; they are slender brown creatures covered with black spines, and the chrysalis suspended by the tail is marked with shining golden spots. P. itea, slightly larger than the previous species, has the edges of both pairs of wings scalloped; the fore wings are black, each with three small yellow spots at the tip, and a large elongated patch crossing through the centre, with the inner portions of both pairs bright ferruginous brown, and a row of four small black eyes on the hind wings. The slender spiny caterpillars feed upon the foliage of nettles. The angulated chrysalis is often marked with golden spots. The Genus Junonia contains two common butterflies, one J. villida found all over Australia; it measures about 2 inches across the wings and is of a general brown tint edged with delicate white and grey markings, and ornamented with a pair of eyes on each wing ringed with yellow. It has a curious habit of flying along the track in front of one, settling on the ground, then flitting ahead again. The cylindrical somewhat stout larva is blackish brown, spined behind the head and clothed with fine hairs; it feeds upon rib grass (plantains). The short stout chrysalis is light brown marked with darker spots. J. albi-cincta does not come south of Brisbane; it is about the same size, with the eyes upon the wings smaller, and the hind wings mauve, giving out a bright metallic sheen. The Brown Leaf-winged Butterfly, Doleschallia australis, is nearly 3 inches across the wings, which are elongated and oval in form, with the tip of the hind pair produced into a tail; the upper surface is dull reddish brown with yellow in the centre, while the under surface is greyish brown mottled with wavy lines, with a central larger bar crossing the centre and running out into the tail. It flits about in the undergrowth, a conspicuous insect when on the wing, but the moment it settles and folds its wings over its back, it is lost to sight, for its leaf-like wings, when closed with the tail forming a stalk, so closely resemble the foliage, that while it remains at rest it is very difficult to detect. It ranges from the Richmond River to North Queensland. The Blue-eyed Butterfly, Hypolimnas bolina, ranges from Cape York to Sydney, but is a rare insect about the latter place. It differs in the sexes both in size and markings; the male is rich velvety black; has both wings deeply scalloped, a double white spot towards the tip of each, with a blotch of opaline white in the centre encircled with iridescent violet blue. The play of colour in this beautiful butterfly flashing about in the bright sunlight with its ever changing tints of blue and black, makes it one of our most striking species. The female is somewhat larger; has the central markings on the fore wings more elongated and lighter coloured, with a blotch of fulvous red below it; the hind wings are much whiter in the centre and are only slightly clouded with blue. Neptis shepherdi, ranging from Brisbane to Cape York, has the typical delicate black wings spotted and striped with white. The Tailed Emperor, Charaxes sempronius, is our sole representative of the genus, the home of which is Africa and the East Indies; it is nearly 4 inches across the wings, the inner portions of which are creamy white, the outer edges, tips and margins black, and with a row of creamy spots along the edges and two spots behind. The marginal black edging on the hind wings is broad, shaded on either side with pale blue, which covers the broad scallops in the wings; there are two stout wedge-shaped tails on each hind wing, and a bright reddish-yellow blotch on each inner edge. The larva is a very curious, short, stout, pale green caterpillar, with a slightly forked tail, and four short stout horns on the top of the head; it feeds upon the foliage of the black wattle. This species ranges from Sydney to Derby, N.W. Australia, where I took a specimen upon a baobab tree which is now in the Macleay Museum; Waterhouse gives Cairns, Q., as its northern limit, but this gives it a much extended range.
The Satyrinae are chiefly small butterflies, black, brown, or sometimes white, generally marked with eye spots, and the wings are rounded. The larvae feed upon different grasses, and are smooth or clothed with fine short hair: the head is round; and the body tapers to each extremity, and ends in a forked tail.
The Genus Mycalesis contains five species; they are all reddish-brown butterflies of small size, that flit about in open forest country, of which Mycalesis terminus is a very good type: it measures 1½ inches across its dull, rusty red wings, which are indistinctly marbled, and darkest at the tips; the edges of the hind pair are marked with fine black lines. On each wing are a pair of small eyes, the hind one on each wing being largest; these also show on the under surface, and those on the hind wings are encircled with silvery lines. It is a northern species found along the coast of North Queensland. Tisiphone abeona is a common species in Victoria and on the eastern coast of N.S. Wales, usually found flitting along damp gullies, never flying high or in open country. It measures about 2½ inches across the wings, and is of a uniform dark brown tint: the front wings are ornamented with two eyes, the first smallest; a broad irregular band of yellow bisects the wings about the middle, crossing behind the eyes; the hind wings are plain, with a small eye on the inner margin, and are slightly scalloped round the edges. The delicate green caterpillar has a small rounded head; it is broadest in the centre, tapering to the head and forked anal extremity. It feeds upon the sedges. The chrysalis is of a delicate emerald green tint, with the edges of the wings outlined in yellow. Ypthima arctous ranges from Sydney to Cape York; it is a small, dull brown insect with a very large eye on the tips of the fore wings, and a very small one on the hind pair.
The Genus Heteronympha contains seven species, all of which have a wide range along the coast; the Yellow Wood Nymph, H. merope, being one of the commonest in all open forest country from Tasmania to Brisbane; it is remarkable from the fact that the sexes differ both in size and markings. The male measures 2½ inches across the wings, which are of a general dull tawny yellow colour mottled with black and brown, the fore pair in a scroll-like pattern, the hind ones only barred along the edges and slightly touched with black. The female, ½ an inch broader, has the greater part of the fore wings black, enclosing two yellow patches fading into tawny yellow toward the basal portion, and with a large yellow angular blotch standing out on the posterior sides; each wing in both sexes has a small eye towards the tip. The dull brown larvae feed upon various grasses, and hide close to the roots. The chrysalis is not attached to the food plant, but rests in a frail network on the ground. H. mirifica, found between Sydney and Brisbane, is about the same size as the female of the last species; it also haunts sheltered country. It is of a uniform, blackish brown tint with small eye spots and a broad irregular white stripe across the middle of the fore wings.
The Genus Xenica is peculiar to Australia; it contains nine species, four of which are confined to Tasmania, several being found only on the higher portion of the mountain ranges. They are all small, tawny yellow or reddish brown butterflies of small size, spotted and mottled with brown, and have small eyes upon the tips of the wings. Xenica achanta, one of the largest, measures about 2 inches across the wings, and is of a uniform dark orange yellow, with the apical portion of the fore wings marbled with dark brown; the hind pair are regularly mottled all over; and the margins of both are edged with two fine black lines; it ranges from S. Australia to Queensland. Several smaller species have been described from the Australian Alps. X. correae, described by Olliff from Mt. Kosciusko, feeds upon the native fuschia: X. fulva, also described by Olliff, is the male of this species.
Family 2. Horned Butterflies — Libytheidae
This family contains only a single genus, representatives of which are found scattered over all the warmer parts of the world, but the largest and most brightly coloured forms are found in New Guinea. They are remarkable for the formation of the palpi, which, standing out in front like a beak, are four times the length of the head; the wings are angulated, and the pupa hangs by the tip of the abdomen. One species, Libythea nicevillei, ranging from Port Moresby across to Cape York, represents the family in Australia.
This group appears to form a connecting link between the Nymphalidae on the one hand, and the Lycaenidae on the other.
Family 3. the Blues — Lycaenidae
The “blues,” “coppers,” or “hair-streaks” are so named on account of their rich colourations or wavy markings on the under side of the wings. Though often passed over by the ordinary collector because of their small size, they are much sought after by lepidopterists for their beauty and bright metallic tints. Their bodies are slender, and the wings somewhat fragile; though they can fly well, they usually prefer to flit about the bushes and sheltered gullies, and when they settle have the habit of folding their wings in an erect position above the body, so that unless disturbed they are not very noticeable. The prevailing colours are metallic blue, or coppery red, with eyes upon the wings in some groups, while others are ornamented with dainty feathery tails, or lobes upon the hind wings. The colours and markings of the sexes often differ in the same species on the upper surface, but always correspond on the under-side. The legs are more developed than in the Nymphalidae, the tarsi of the male somewhat aborted, but that of the female complete. The larvae are curious, short, slug-like, greasy grubs, dull brown or green; some of them are gregarious, clinging to the twigs by day and feeding at night. The pupae are attached to the twig by the tip of the abdomen and girthed with a silken thread round the middle.
In Miskin’s Catalogue 110 species were given under 18 genera; in Waterhouse’s list 114 species are recorded, divided into 31 genera. Waterhouse has monographed this family, where descriptions of all the known Australian species will be found (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1902–1903). A number are rare and restricted in their range, and many are confined to the rich tropical scrubs of North Queensland. The Genus Danis contains six species, most of which are confined to North Queensland; Danis taygetus is a very distinctive little butterfly, common in the Queensland scrubs, and extending as far south as the Richmond River, N.S.W. The male has the fore wings pale violet blue, with the centre of the hind ones white, the edges of both pairs black; in the female both pairs are marked with white with a faint shade of blue; on the under surface the centres of the wings are white edged with black, with a broad band of bright metallic blue occupying the lower half of the hind pair encircling a row of black spots. The Genus Miletus contains fifteen species: M. delicia has the upper surface brownish black, with the base of the fore and centre of hind wings pale metallic blue; the under side is dull yellowish brown, variegated with angulated blotches or spots forming bands round the wings and a parallel stripe across the front of the fore pair. This butterfly ranges from Victoria to Queensland. M. ignita has a very wide range over the southern parts of Australia into Queensland; it was figured and described by Leach in 1817. Candalides absimilis is a medium sized insect; the male has the upper surface dull blue with the edges fringed with white; the female is dark brown with an oval patch of white in the centre of both wings and metallic tints round the body; the under surface is pale bluish white marked with fine wavy lines round the wings. It is found from Victoria well into Northern Queensland. Polyommatus boeticus has had many names, for not only has it a very wide distribution over Australia, but it extends over Asia, Africa, and Europe. It is of a uniform brown tint; has the centre of both wings shaded with pale metallic blue; the hind one terminates in a fine slender tail, with two eye spots at the base; the under side is creamy white with slate grey lines and eye spots touched with blue.
Family Pieridae.
1. Terias hecabe (Fabr.).
Family Papilionidae.
2. Papilio sthenelus (Macl.).
Family Nymphalidae.
3. Junonia albi-cincta (Butler).
5. Pyrameis itea (Fabr.).
6. Pyrameis cardui (Linn.).
7. Danais petilia (Stoll.).
Family Hesperidae.
4. Trepezites symmomous (Hubn.).
Family Lycaenidae.
8. Chrysophanus aenea (Miskin).
Lucia lucanus, one of the smaller forms, has all the upper surface of a dull ochreous tint, with the centres of the fore wings pale yellow. A fine fringe of hair-like scales of alternate tufts of black and white gives it a delicate pencilled appearance; the under surface is mottled and brownish, the white of the fore wings showing through. It has a wide range from South Australia to Mackay, Queensland, and is common about Sydney. L. pyrodiscus has the upper surface black, with the centre of the fore wings and the greater part of the hind ones dull red. The whole of the under surface is purplish and finely marbled with a very fine tail on the outer edge of the hind pair. It ranges from Victoria to N. Queensland.
The Genus Ogyris contains eleven species, most of which are recorded from the southern portion of Australia. Ogyris abrota has the upper surface dark brown with a patch of pale metallic green in the centre of each fore wing; the hind pair are all brown and scalloped along the edges; the under side is pale creamy white mottled with wavy lines. The larva feeds upon the foliage of Loranthus; it measures about an inch in length; is of a uniform dark yellowish brown, with the upper surface rough, clothed with fine bristles; they feed at night, and pupate in the usual manner of all members of this family.
The Genus Ialmenus contains eight species, among them several of our best known “Blues”: Ialmenus evagorus ranges from South Australia into Southern Queensland, and was figured by Donovan in his “Insects of New Holland” in 1805. It is described by Olliff under the name of the “Imperial Blue,” but I would suggest that the “Black-wattle Blue” would be a much more distinctive name, for all along the coast the short, dull green, slug-like grubs may be met with, congregated in little groups clinging to the twigs of this wattle. Hundreds of ants are always swarming over them attracted by the secretion they discharge from glands on the back.
The presence of ants is probably of great value to the larvae, for they keep parasitic insects and birds from molesting them. When full grown they sling themselves to the twigs to pupate, and are often so numerous that the branches are covered with pupae hanging like bunches of grapes. The butterfly measures nearly 2 inches across the wings, which on the upper surface are black on the margin, with the rest pale metallic blue shading into white in the centre; the hind pair are scalloped and produced into fine feathery tails with spots of dark orange yellow at the base; the under side is pearly grey, banded and spotted with black. I. ictinus, with identical habits, about the same size, takes the place of this species in the inland districts. Pseudalmenus myrsilus is a handsome little butterfly with the centres of the wings deep orange divided with dark nervures, and the hind pair with long black tails; it is found from Tasmania to the southern districts of N.S. Wales. The last species of this family, Liphyra brassolis, is only found in North Queensland; its larvae live and pupate in the arboreal nests of the “Green Tree-ants.” An interesting account of the life history of this butterfly is given by Dodd in the “Entomologist” 1902.
Family 4. the Whites and Yellows — Pieridae
The members of this family are popularly known as “Whites” and “Yellows” on account of their prevailing colours. Both sexes have six perfect legs, and are butterflies of moderate size, with the hind wings rarely crenulated or produced into tails. Their larvae are slender, hairy caterpillars with small heads, and are often gregarious in their habits; the pupae are sharply angulated to each extremity, attached both by the tail, and a silken girdle round the body of their food plant.
In Miskin’s Catalogue 34 species are listed, contained in 7 genera; Waterhouse reduces them to 31 species, and discards several well-known genera.
The Genus Terias contains all the small “Yellows,” which are low flitting, dainty, little butterflies found in the tropical jungle, but equally at home in the far western scrubs and open forest land. Terias smilax, our smallest species, is common about Sydney, and has a wide range both north and south from Adelaide to Rockhampton. It is bright yellow, with the black markings in the fore wings extending to the tips of the hind pair. The Mottled Yellow, T. hecabe, is much larger than the last; is of a bright yellow colour with the black markings coming round to the edge of the hind wing and swelling out into a rounded patch; the hind wings are lightly edged with black, and on the under side are thickly mottled with yellowish brown spots. It extends from Sydney to Queensland, and has a wide range out northward and eastward among the islands.
The Genus Elodina contains several small, pearly white butterflies, with wings edged with black. The small white, Elodina angulipennis, is found about Sydney, ranging as far north as Mackay, Queensland. Our common white butterfly known under the name of Pieris teutonia, and the sole representative of that well defined genus, has been recently identified as Belenois java, and as Sparrman described it some few years before Fabricius, this well-known name will unfortunately have to give way. This butterfly has a wide range over Australia, especially in the interior, where several native shrubs belonging to the Capparidae are plentiful; upon these the slender brown and yellow caterpillars feed. This is the species that sometimes comes flying over the eastern coast in immense swarms. It measures 2½ inches across the wings, and is black and white on the upper surface, with the under portion more mottled with black and canary yellow. It ranges from Australia to Fiji, Tonga, and the Malay Archipelago. The smaller Whites, which have the under side of the hind wings of a more uniform yellow tint, are represented by Appias (Tachyris) ega, first described by Boisduval in 1836; it has an extended range from Victoria to Cape York, Queensland.
The typical Genus Delias is represented in Australia by 8 species, three of which can be collected from Sydney to Cape York, and two others from South Australia northward. The Painted Delias, D. harpalyce, first figured by Donovan in 1805, measures 3 inches across the wings, which on the upper surface are creamy white, broadly margined on the apical half with black, the fore pair banded with a row of white spots; on the under surface the white markings above are much broader, and the hind wings are blotched with a bright red band surrounded with black but lined with white. The larvae feed upon the native mistletoe (Loranthus) which grows upon the she-oaks, and are slender, dark coloured caterpillars covered with fine hairs. They are gregarious in their habits, often 20 to 30 in a family, and not only do they keep together when feeding, but they spin a curious web over the denuded twigs of their food plant to which they attach themselves when pupating. The pupa is dark brown, slightly over 1 inch in length, armed with short black spines along the sides of the body, and the front of the head is furnished with a curious two-pronged fork.
The Tinted Delias, D. argenthona, is a Queensland species, with the outer half of the hind wings on the under surface black, enclosing a number of bright red blotches; while on the hind wings of the Striped Delias, D. mysis, the red forms a continuous broad curved band round the tips. In the Yellow-tinted Delias, D. aganippe, the wings of the male on the upper surface are creamy white, while those of the female are tinged with yellow, and the black extends further into the wing; on the under surface both sexes have the wings blackish, mottled with large white blotches, and yellow markings; a patch of bright red on the shoulders; and with a row of rounded spots of the same colour running round the hind wings. The larvae feed upon the foliage of Loranthus. The Dusky Delias, D. nigrina, generally flies high, and is not so easily caught; it has an extended range from Sydney to North Queensland; the upper surface is of the usual colour, but the whole of the under surface of the wings is dull black washed with grey; there is a band of yellow on the fore pair, and the hind pair is marked with the same colour and a horse-shoe band of red. The larvae when full grown are almost black spotted with yellow, and with fine white hairs; they are gregarious and also feed upon the Loranthus.
Catopsilia (Callidyras) pomona is a large light butterfly, with the upper surface creamy white tinged with yellow, and with dusky spots toward the tips of the wings; all the under surface is dull yellow, with a few white spots, and with pale purple markings, forming a darker patch in the centre of each wing. It is found from Sydney northward through the Malay Peninsula, and into Ceylon.
Family 5. Swallow Tails — Papilionidae
The members of this group of butterflies are popularly known as “Swallow Tails” from the peculiar structure of the hind wings of the typical species, which are produced at the tips into spatulate lobes or tails; though in a large number these tails are wanting. They are all furnished with well developed legs; antennae distinctly clubbed; and the pupae are attached both by the tip of the body and a silken girdle. In this family many of the largest and most beautiful insects in the world are congregated.
The Bird-winged Butterflies (Ornithoptera) are represented by three more or less distinct species from the mainland, and a fourth from Darnley Island. O. richmondia, typical of the group, is the southern form, ranging from the Richmond River, N.S.W., into Southern Queensland. The smaller male measures about 6 inches across the wings, which are rich velvety black, with a bright green stripe along the front of the fore wings; the whole of the body is golden; and the hind wings except the black margins and four black spots are of a slightly brighter tint. The large female is of a uniform dark blackish brown with white markings on the wings. O. (cassandra) euphorion, found from Mackay to Cairns, N.Q., is somewhat larger, with a second stripe of green on the fore wings, and a row of golden spots on the hind pair. The large black caterpillars have short black fleshy spines along the sides of the body, with the front ones bright red.
Rippon has recently monographed the Ornithoptera, and places our species in the Genus Troides, but I prefer to retain the original name, under which our species are so well known. The Genus Papilio contains 18 species in Miskin’s Catalogue, reduced to 15 in Waterhouse’s list, many of them with a very wide range. Papilio sarpedon is common in Sydney gardens, and extends away up the coast to India and Ceylon. Olliff called it the “Wanderer” from its rapid restless flight. It is of a general black colour, with sharp angular fore wings, and rounded crenulated hind wings coming to a blunt finger-like tail at the tips. The centre of both pairs of wings is pale green forming a broad elongate stripe, widest in the centre, and with a row of fine crescent-shaped spots down the sides of the hind pair. The larvae are short, green, slug-like creatures with a patch of yellow on the back; they feed upon the foliage of the camphor laurel.
The Black Orchard Butterfly, Papilio erectheus (now known as P. aegeus), is a larger black insect with an irregular band of white crossing the tips of the fore wings; the centre of each hind one is occupied by a rounded mauve patch; the edges are crenulated, tipped with white, and have a red eye-like spot on the inner margin. The female is much larger; has the inner portion of the fore wings black, but the outer portions dusky white; the hind wings are black at the base, banded with white shaded with black, and have a row of red spots round the margins. The mottled orange green larva is furnished with a broad head, from which shoot out a pair of retractile fleshy horns when touched, at the same time giving off a musky scent. They feed upon the foliage of orange trees, and when numerous are a nuisance in the plant nurseries. The larvae of Macleay’s butterfly (Papilio macleayanus) feed upon the foliage of the Sassafras in the Illawarra district, and range from Tasmania to Cairns N.Q. The butterfly is somewhat after the same slender shape as P. sarpedon, but has the hind wings produced into slender swallow tails. The portion of the wings surrounding the body is pale green, the outer parts black, with three small green patches toward the front of the fore pair, and a row of small spots along the lower edges of the hind pair.
The Imperial Swallow Tail, Papilio ulysses, measures 5 inches across the wings, which are rich metallic blue margined with deep velvety black, and are produced into long swallow tails behind. It is found in the tropical scrubs of North Queensland ranging up into the Malay Archipelago, and for shape and colour is one of the most beautiful butterflies in the world, but should be seen in its native haunts to fully admire its beauty as it goes floating through the tropical brushes.
Family Nymphalidae.
1. Heteronympha merope (Fabr.). ♂.
2. Heteronympha merope (Fabr.). ♀.
3. Danais hamata (Macl.).
4. Cethosia cydippe (Linn.).
(Original photo. Burton.)]
The last of this genus I shall notice is the very distinct yellow and black butterfly, Papilio sthenelus, which has a wide range from South Australia to Queensland, and is one of the very few large butterflies found far inland. The Painted Gauzewing, Eurycus cressida, is a rare species in N.S. Wales, though recorded from as far south as Sydney, but is abundant in the tropical northern scrubs. The male has the fore wings denuded of scales and semitransparent, with the shoulders and two spots in the front black; the hind ones are black mottled with white and red, the latter colour also on the sides of the thorax and tip of the abdomen. The female is smaller, of a dull brown colour, with semitransparent wings, looking very much like a small rubbed specimen of the male; the amateur collector generally discards them under that impression.
Family 6. Skippers — Hesperidae
These butterflies are popularly known as “Skippers” on account of the peculiar way they fly, so different from all the other groups. They have broad, short, thickset heads and bodies; and the antennae, wide apart at the base, are produced at the tip into an irregular club or pointed hooked process. The legs are perfect in both sexes and often spined; most of them are brown or reddish yellow, more or less variegated. The larvae are long, cylindrical, naked caterpillars, with the head hard and horny; the prothorax narrow, forming a regular neck. When full grown they attach themselves by the tail to the leaf, which they roll round themselves into a primitive kind of cocoon.
Messrs. Meyrick and Lower have lately revised this group (Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A. 1902), and list 79 species that they identify, and note a number of others that are so badly described that they cannot be determined.
Netrocoryne repanda, one of our largest species, of a uniform light brown tint, has the tips of the wings darkest, the centres of the fore pair marked with large translucent blotches of a pale yellow tint, and a single spot in each hind one. It has an extended range from Sydney to N. Queensland.
The Genus Hesperilla contains 31 species, some of which are very local, while others have a very wide range: H. picta is about 2 inches across the wings; its general colour is dark brown with a dull greenish tint on the body, ornamented with five yellow spots on the fore wing; the centres of the hind ones and the hind margins of the same yellow colour, and with the markings on the under surface more numerous. H. ornata is a smaller species, of a general dark brown; the fore wings carry a number of spots and four angular golden yellow blotches; the hind pair are reddish orange mottled on the under surface of the body, the tips of the fore and the whole of the hind wings with pale yellow. It has an extended range from Victoria up to Cooktown N.Q. Trapezites iacchus, one of our commonest species, described by Fabricius in 1775, measures 1¾ inches in length, and is of a uniform, dull brown colour shaded with yellow; the fore wings are blotched with small irregular marks; those on the hind pair are parallel and confluent. The under surface is dull yellow; the fore wings are mottled and the hind ones marked with four to five small purple spots ringed with black. It has a wide range from Tasmania over Australia. T. symmomus is a darker, larger species very similar in the markings, only the yellow spots are more defined. It does not range further north than Brisbane.
Apaustus lascivia is one of the small dull brown skippers washed with yellow, with pale slender transverse bars crossing the centre of the wings; the body is marked with white; the under surface is dull yellow, with the tips of the fore wings darkest. The larvae of Pamphila augiades, another common species in the Sydney gardens, and found as far north as Bowen, Queensland, feeds upon the foliage of young palms; that of Erynnis sperthias is found on the same plant.
Badamia exclamationis is a light brown species with the fore wings narrowed to the extremities, and the hind pair arcuate on the edges. It measures 2 inches across the wings, and ranges from Sydney to Cape York. In the Genus Hasora we have several large skippers, all northern species, with the upper surface dark; the under surface richly marked with purple and pale golden yellow in H. discolor; and with simple silvery stripes on the under surface in H. hurama.
Heterocera. — Moths
Moths differ from butterflies in having the abdomen stout and thickset, and not pinched or constricted in front at the junction with the thorax; and the antennae, instead of being clubbed or thickened at the tips, are either slender filiform appendages or are uniformly thickened, pectinate, or feathered; when of the latter form they are much more pronounced in the males.
Most moths are nocturnal in their habits; in the day time they are usually found hiding among the foliage or resting in dark corners, and many can be obtained by shaking the bushes over a net. The larger species may be killed at once in the cyanide bottle, but must be transferred to a box as soon as they are dead, for they rub very easily; the smaller forms can be placed alive in glass-topped or chip boxes, and afterwards killed, and then mounted before they are stiff. The members of a few groups fly about in the daylight; for instance Agarista glycine, our vine moth, but they are exceptions. The beautiful hawk moths only flit about at twilight, and are known as “crepuscular” moths.
This great group contains some giants of the insect world, such as some of the Atlas Moths of India, and Wood Moths of Australia, which are as big as small bats; while among the Micro-lepidoptera we come to many tiny creatures which require to be examined with a lens before their identity can be established.
The typical moth caterpillar constructs a stout silken bag or cocoon, within the shelter of which it casts its skin and becomes a well defined pupa; but there are many which bury themselves in the ground, or pupate in cavities in timber that form no true cocoon but simply undergo their transformations in such secure hiding places.
Moths are well represented in all parts of Australia, but are most numerous in well wooded country: a considerable amount of work has been done in this group by Messrs. Lewin, Scott, Walker, Meyrick, Lower, Turner, and others in Australia, and Messrs. Guérin, Boisduval, and many other foreign writers. I have in the arrangement of the families followed Lower’s Catalogue of Victorian Heterocera (Victorian Naturalist Vol. x. 1893—Vol. xiv. 1898).
Family 1. Connecting-link Moths — Castniidae
The members of this group comprise a few insects that form an intermediate state of development between butterflies and moths; for while there is no doubt that they are moths, they have hooked or thickened antennae like the “Skippers,” somewhat similar habits, and even the general colouration. They are chiefly confined to South America and Australia. Euschemon rafflesiae is one of the largest hesperid-like forms; is black, blotched with white, and is found in the northern parts of Australia.
The Genus Synemon contains a number of small reddish brown moths which flit about over the grass, just like small butterflies: Synemon sophia is about 1½ inches across the wings, which are brown, slightly marbled in front, and the hind pair blotched with dull yellowish brown; it is common on the grassy flats along the eastern coast. S. hesperoides is common in Victoria in similar localities; is about the same size, but of a darker brown colour; the fore wings marbled with fine wavy grey lines, and the hind ones with a rusty red tint.
Family 2. Butterfly Moths — Uraniidae
These are large usually day-flying moths with slender antennae; broad wings, the hind pair crenulated and produced into tails; the abdomen like that of a stout butterfly, and never extending beyond the hind wings.
The typical species (Genus Urania) are found in America, others in Madagascar; but our beautiful forms belong to the Genus Nyctalemon, one species of which, Nyctalemon orontes, is very common in North Queensland. In the neighbourhood of Cairns a score of this species can often be taken in the early morning resting on the low scrub, and small swarms of them can often be seen flying across the rivers in the middle of the day. This species is a very handsome large velvety black moth marked with broad dull green bands, and having short creamy swallow tails. Several very beautiful species are also found in Southern New Guinea.
Family 3. Day Moths — Agaristidae
This family has been lately revised by Hampson (Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae Vol. I. British Museum 1898); he divides them into 55 Genera containing 225 species, of which some typical forms are peculiar to Australia; they are conspicuously coloured and further noticeable from their habit of flying in the daytime. The members of this family are chiefly confined to the tropical parts of the Old World and the Australian region; in America a few only are found in Mexico and Brazil.
The Vine Moth, Phalaenoides (Agarista) glycinae, better known under the old generic name of Agarista, is one of our regular vine pests in the caterpillar state, devouring the foliage and young grapes. The moth lays her eggs upon the vine canes; the grubs when full grown measure up to 2 inches; are of a general deep greenish yellow tint, with the whole of the upper surface covered with small tubercles each bearing a single hair; and they have a band of bright red blotches round the dorsal surface of the anal segment. They bury themselves in the ground, forming a dark reddish brown chrysalid enclosed in a primitive cocoon or covering of particles of earth. The moth measures 2¼ inches across the wings, and is of a uniform black colour marbled on the head, thorax, and sides of the wings with white; the fore wings are tipped with white, and an irregular transverse bar of pale yellow is followed by a smaller blotch through the centre; in the hind pair the outer margins are irregularly edged with white. Phalaenoides tristifica, formerly known under the name of Agarista lewinii, is slightly smaller; the fore wings are more mottled, and the hind pair have an irregular white spot in the centre by which it can be easily identified. Cruria donovani, also smaller than the Vine Moth, has the fore wings mottled with a number of small white blotches, and a broad irregular patch in the centre of the hind ones. Eutrichopidia latina comes closer still to the Vine Moth in size and colour, but can also be easily recognised by having a single broader, irregular, dull yellow band across the outer half of the fore wings. The Painted Day Moth, Agarista agricola, attracted the attention of our earliest entomologists by its brilliant colouration, and was described and figured in colours by Donovan in his “Insects of New Holland” 1805, and again by Dr. Leach in his “Zoological Miscellanies” published in 1815. It has a wide range from Sydney northward, and the several sub-species placed under this name extend its range to New Guinea and Timor. This is now the sole type of the Genus Agarista, in which so many of our species were formerly placed; it is a handsome black moth; measures up to 3 inches across the wings, the fore-pair of which are richly blotched with pale yellow, deep orange, and blue; in the hind pair the centre is bright red and blue, and the margin is white. The head and thorax are pale yellow above; the legs and under surface red; the tip of the abdomen dark orange. The larva is a handsome dark coloured caterpillar clothed with scattered and curious long clubbed hairs.
Family Notodontidae.
1. Danima banksiae (Lewin).
Family Agaristidae.
2. Hecatesia fenestrata (Boisd.).
6. Agarista agricola (Donov.).
Family Hypsidae.
3. Nyctemera amica (White).
Family Sphingidae.
4. Cizara ardenia (Lewin).
8. Hemaris hylas (Lewin).
Family Liparidae.
5. Darala ocellata (Walker).
Family Syntomidae.
7. Syntomis annulata (Fabr.).
Family Castniidae.
9. Synemon hesperoides (Feld).
Family Pyralidae.
10. Zenckenia recurvalis (Fabr.).
(Original photo. Burton.)]
The Genus Hecatesia contains our curious “whistling moths,” which fly about just at dusk, making sharp continued notes like the calls of some of our small cicadas. The sound is said to be produced by the male rubbing his curiously clubbed antennae against a pellucid ridged area in the front of the fore wings. Hampson doubts this, and says it is probably caused by rubbing the tarsal spines against the ribbed space. Hecatesia fenestrata is a pretty little moth, about 1 inch across the wings; is of a general dark brown tint; the outer margins of the fore wings are provided with a broad semi-lunate ribbed band (the musical apparatus) in front, and two white lines behind; the centre of the hind pair and abdomen richly blotched with reddish yellow; the head, antennae, centre of thorax, and outer margins of the wings marked with white.
Three species of this Genus are recorded from Australia, two of which were described from the west coast, while Hecatesia fenestrata has a range from South Australia into N.S. Wales.
Family 4. Ringed Moths — Syntomidae
The typical Genus Syntomis, in which Hampson places all our species that were previously described under the Genus Hydrusa, comprises about 138 species, chiefly confined to Africa, Asia, the Malay Archipelago and Australia; 12 species are recorded from this country. They are all rather small moths of a general black or brown tint mottled with orange yellow or lighter brown.
Syntomis annulata, about 1 inch across the outspread wings, has a very wide range from the Philippines through New Guinea and Australia, and naturally varies much in different localities; our variety is of a blackish tint, with six orange spots in the fore wings, and two more angular blotches on the hind ones; the abdomen is regularly banded with orange and black. S. aperta measures 2 inches across the wings, which are of a brownish tint with large blotches of orange yellow occupying the greater portion of the surface, divided from each other by slender lines. It ranges from New Guinea and Queensland round to S. Australia, and has been captured out west about Bathurst, N.S.W.
Euchromia creusa is a very handsome form about 2 inches across the narrow fore wings, which are black with two large transparent divided spots forming a double row across them, and another very small one at the base: the hind pair have two similar blotches. The head, thorax, and basal portion of the abdomen are black, shot with metallic blue; the basal abdominal segments are crimson, finely barred with black. This beautiful moth has a wide range over the Malay Archipelago and the Pacific Islands, coming down to Thursday Island and North Queensland.
Many of the foreign species in the larval state feed upon lichens or grass.
Family 5. Burnet Moths — Zygaenidae
These moths form an extensive family represented in most parts of the world; they are also day-flying moths, and some are very brilliant in colour. In England some of them are known as “Burnet Moths” and “Green Foresters.” They have long narrow wings, and the antennae thickened toward the middle.
Most of our species belong to the Genus Procris, which are also very abundant in Southern Europe. They are small creatures measuring under 1 inch across the wings, and are of a general dark brown tint with greenish markings. Hestiochora bicolor is a curious little moth remarkable for its bright colouration, which has a wonderful resemblance to one of our small parasitic wasps (Braconidae). The wings are clouded with black; the head and front of the thorax are red, the hind margin of the latter black; the abdomen black and white.
Family 6. Hawk Moths — Sphingidae
The hawk moths have a stout rounded abdomen tapering to a point; thickened antennae; stout narrow pointed wings; the proboscis or sucking mouth-tube very long, curled up under the head when at rest, but capable of being uncurled in front of the head to suck up the nectar from the deepest tubular flower while the moth is hovering over it. They hide during the day, and are most active just at twilight, when they dart about, over, and around the flowering shrubs. Their caterpillars are very handsome thick cylindrical grubs marked with brilliant eye spots and stripes of various striking colours, and are easily distinguished by a curious curved fleshy horn on the dorsal surface of the tail segment.
They take their scientific name from the fanciful resemblance of their stiff horny pupae (which are naked and generally buried in the sand beneath their food plant) to the Egyptian Sphinx, and their popular names of “hawk” and “humming-bird moth” from their powers of flight.
Our species have been divided into five sub-families, and in Miskin’s “Catalogue of the Australian Sphingidae” (Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensland) 42 species are listed under 13 genera; to which list a few species have since been added.
The first group contains what are popularly called the “Clear-winged Hawk-moths,” from the large bare scaleless areas in the wings; they fly about in the daytime with a loud humming noise, very much resembling some of the Carpenter-bees when hovering over the flowers. Hemaris kingi is marked with black and yellow, and has a thick tuft of stiff hairs on either side of the abdomen; it is not uncommon in Southern Queensland. H. hylas is a similar stout moth with unspotted wings which has an extended range across Queensland to Japan, Asia, and Africa; while a third species, H. janus, ranges from Brisbane to Rockhampton. In the Genus Macroglossa 4 species are recorded from Queensland, some of which extend into our north coast scrubs.
In the second group we have a very distinctive little banded hawk moth, Cizara ardenia, which ranges from New South Wales into Southern Queensland; most of my specimens come from the Illawarra scrubs, N.S.W., where the larva feeds upon the wild vine. Its ground colour is dark brown with narrow grey bands running round and crossing the middle of the wings, with a curious eye spot on the shoulders. The Genus Chaerocampa contains a number of large handsome hawk moths, some of which are introduced species world wide in their range; about 17 are recorded from Australia. The Silver Stripe, Chaerocampa celerio, is a common European species, that is well known here. French describes the caterpillar as a vine pest in Victoria; it is a cylindrical greenish to purple tinted grub with eye spots on the hind segments. The moth measures 3 inches across the wings; its ground colour is greyish fawn, with four slender lines of silvery white forming a stripe down the centre of the fore wings, and the body marked with silver spots; the hind wings are bright pink. C. oldenlandi, which comes close to this species, feeds upon vines in N.S. Wales. It differs in having no short oblique silvery stripes on the front of the fore wings, hardly any red on the hind ones, and has an unbroken silvery dorsal stripe down the abdomen. C. erotus, about the same size, has dark reddish brown fore wings, slightly marbled, and the hind pair yellow, darkened on the hind margins; its larvae sometimes feed upon sweet-potatoes. C. scrofa is a much smaller species of a lighter brown colour, with the hind wings dull brick red, darkest along the hind margin. This is one of our commonest species with a wide range over Australia; the brown small-headed larvae feed upon grass and low herbage. Among our most striking forms are the two species of the Genus Coequosa, both about the same size, sometimes measuring up to 7 inches across the wings. Coequosa triangularis is of a reddish brown and grey tint, mottled on the hind wings with bright yellow, the darker brown forming a large angular patch in the centre of the fore wings; C. australasiae is of a light buff or fawn colour, more marbled, with the wedge-shaped blotch merging into the colouration of the tip of the wing; and the hind pair yellow, only edged with brown on the hind margin. The caterpillar of C. triangularis, our commoner form, is dull green, with a rough granulated skin and a small elongate head; the tip of the abdomen is furnished with a pair of stout plates used as claspers to cling to its food plant; above this on either side is a black shining bead-like eye, which is only an ornamental process, but this often leads people to think that this is the head end, and in some places it is known as the double-headed caterpillar. It feeds upon the foliage of Persoonia and Acacia, and when touched has a habit of swinging its body round, as if trying to strike; when full grown it is enclosed in a black shining pupa-case hidden among the rubbish beneath the trees. The Genus Macrosila contains 4 species, two of which are not uncommon in N.S. Wales. The She-oak Hawk-moth, M. casuarina, measures up to 5 inches across the wings, and is of a general greyish mottled brown colour, with a darker blotch in the centre of the fore wings, which are slightly mottled with black toward the tip; and the hind wings are often very dark brown.
The Convolvulus Hawk-moth, Protoparce convolvuli, ranges all over the world, the caterpillars feeding upon the convolvulus; and it is also sometimes quite a pest upon sweet-potatoes. The moth measures 3½ inches across the wings, and is of a general dark grey colour thickly mottled with dark brown; the abdomen has a broad brown stripe down the centre with short transverse white, pink, and black bars on either side.
The Privet Hawk-moth, Sphinx ligustri, has light brown fore wings, the abdomen and hind wings being marked with pink and black. It, like the vine hawkmoth, has a world wide range, and the caterpillars, with their delicate green tint beautifully striped with white, are very common in our gardens toward the end of summer on privet and other garden shrubs. In spite of their large size, they are very difficult to detect until the damaged foliage calls attention to their presence.
Family 7. Wood Moths — Hepialidae
This is a very distinct group, the members of which usually have long deflexed wings rounded at the extremities, and the neuration of both pairs of wings alike; the tongue is generally obsolete; ocelli absent; the tibiae without spurs; while the abdomen is very long and cylindrical in the typical forms. They lay their eggs upon the bark of different forest trees; the little caterpillars, after feeding for a short time on the surface, tunnel into the tree trunk, becoming fleshy naked grubs which bore cylindrical chambers of various forms in the timber, in which they sometimes remain for years, finally pupating in the burrows. The moth develops and escapes in the summer from the pupal case, which is frequently found projecting from the hole in the trunk or root after it has emerged. The moths are generally found clinging to the tree trunks, where they are easily captured. They frequently come to the light at night, but are difficult things to kill and mount, on account of their size and the ease with which the scales rub off. The females of some species lay many thousands of eggs. If these eggs are not removed from captured specimens and the bodies stuffed before setting, they generally become greasy and spoil in a very short time.
On account of their large size and beautiful colouration the wood moths have attracted a great deal of attention; Scott figured and described a number in his “Australian Lepidoptera,” part of which has been published by the trustees of the Australian Museum N.S.W. Meyrick published a revision of the family (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1889), which is much more satisfactory, and has been followed in these notes. The moths, which Meyrick considers to be the ancestral forms of the Bombycina, have a world wide distribution, and are well represented in Australia.
Donovan in his “Insects of New Holland” described one under the name of Hepialus australasiae, which is now known as Perissectis australasiae. With outspread wings it measures up to 3½ inches across; the body and fore wings are of a general dark yellowish colour, marbled and mottled with dark brown, and the hind wings have a reddish tint. The Genus Porina contains 8 described species from this country; others are recorded from New Zealand and Africa; they are smaller moths of a general brown, yellow, or grey tint.
The Genus Hepialus comprises a number of very beautiful moths with all kinds of delicate green, yellow, pink, and silvery shades of colour. The moth lays her eggs upon a tree stem; the newly hatched larva eating off the surface of the bark forms a matted web under which it bores into the centre of the branch, and then makes a vertical shaft downward, varying in length from a few inches to several feet, in which it feeds and pupates. The best method to obtain specimens of these moths is to collect the infested branches or stems, cutting them off a foot or more on either side of the silken webs (which often form a regular ring round the stem), and placing them in several inches of damp sand in a box, with a sheet of glass over the top. The wood thus dries slowly and does not damage the delicate pupae or larvae from which, if collected at the proper time, the perfect moths of several species will readily breed out. The males and females of the same species differ from each other in size, colour and markings.
Family Hepialidae.
Leto staceyi (Scott).
(Original photo. Burton.)]
Lewin’s wood-moth, Hepialus lewini, is one in which the sexes are very different. The larger female measures 2½ inches across the wings; the fore pair, head, and thorax are dull claret red, mottled on the centre and tips of the wings with green; the hind pair dull yellow, with a pinkish tint. In the male, the head, thorax, and fore wings are pale green, the latter banded with opaline white; the hind pair of a paler green with white tints. This is one of our common species, and feeds in the stems of the Casuarina.
The larva of H. exima feeds on the stems of the “Lilly-pilly” and Water-gums, forming quite a felted bag round the branch, and is said to remain in the larval state for several years; like the great wood-moth, before it pupates it eats the web off in front of its chamber and replaces it with a wad to protect the opening; this it can easily push out with its horny pupal head when ready to emerge. This is a much larger green form, with the edges of the fore wings marked with brownish yellow and two eye spots of the same colour in the centre; the small male has the green fore wings marked with opaline white. H. ramseyi is easily recognised by its greater size and the green fore wings richly mottled with large silvery white spots forming irregular transverse bands.
The Bent-wing, Leto staceyi, is one of our most remarkable moths both for size and colour: it was originally described by Scott under the generic name Zelotypia, but Meyrick placed it in the Genus Leto, in which another species has been described from S. Africa. Both of these species are peculiar in having the hind wings tufted with stout shaggy hairs. This moth, chiefly obtained in the forest country about Newcastle, has been largely bred from the infested timber by miners in the district, who had a ready sale for them, and who at this work naturally learnt a good deal about their habits. When the young larva enters the tree trunk it covers the opening so carefully with web and particles of bark, that it requires an observant eye to detect the injury. According to some of the collectors the larva lives and grows in its shaft, about a foot in depth, for a period of six years (but this needs verifying); it generally pupates early in December after blocking the opening with a felted wad; but soon after its transformation it pushes this wad out. The chrysalid fits close to its vertical shaft, and aided by rows of fine spines round the apex of each abdominal segment can move up and down; when reaching maturity it has a favourite habit of resting in the shaft with the top of its head level with the transverse burrow, and dropping downward if disturbed. Thornton, who bred or captured nearly 100 in the Newcastle district, generally obtained them in the month of March, and found that those under observation invariably came out about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The larger female measures up to 8 inches across the wings, of which the front pair are long, slender, and arcuate on the hind margins; these are of a general greyish fawn brown, wonderfully marbled with black and brown, and with a large eye-spot in the centre toward the tip: the hind wings and body are reddish yellow. Meyrick suggests, in his paper previously quoted, that the curious eye-spots on the wings, together with the general outline of the moth resting upon the tree trunk, might be a case of protective mimicry, resembling a snake’s head; this appears to me however to be very far fetched. Skuse reproduced a drawing of the moth and a monitor lizard’s head in the “Records of the Australian Museum,” to show this fancied resemblance, but if the correct colouration had been added the resemblance would have been very much less marked.
The Genus Pielus contains some large brownish moths with very hairy legs, two of which have been described from Australia: Pielus hyalinatus, slightly under 4 inches across the wings, is of a general chocolate brown tint with an irregular silvery white stripe and dark lines running through the centre of the fore wings; the hind pair are brown. The larvae feed in the roots of several species of wattles, and are frequently attacked by Cordiceps, the curious fungus that turns them into what are known as “vegetable caterpillars.” This species has a range from the southern parts of W. Australia through Victoria to North Queensland. Messrs. Olliff and Prince figured and described (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1887) a handsome variety of this moth under the name of Pielus imperialis. The marbled wood-moth, Trictena labyrinthica, is a large dark brown moth, measuring up to 6 inches across the wings, which are covered with a scroll-work pattern of lighter colour. The larvae of these also feed upon the roots of trees.
In the Cossidae we have a typical goat-moth, Culama caliginosa, resembling the English species in form and habits. The larva is a short, dull, red, naked grub that feeds in the stem of the apple-gum, tunnelling round under the bark until nearly full grown, when it bores into the wood and pupates in a cocoon at the end. The moth is of a uniform delicate slate-grey, finely marbled with black lines all over the broad rounded wings, which are folded downward when at rest.
The Zeuzeridae comprise some of our giant wood-boring moths; some are as large as small birds, with great rounded bodies, and grey wings thickly mottled with black, brown and fawn: Zeuzera eucalypti has received an unfortunate specific name, for it feeds in the larval state in the stems and branches of several different species of wattles, and kills a great number of these trees by perforating them with great circular burrows; when ready to pupate, it forms a silken bag close to the outer skin of the bark, which has been gnawed away so that it can easily push its way out when ready to emerge. The moths have the usual brown tint mottled with irregular blotches of grey. The rust-coloured wood moth is a much larger species, and is commonly known under the name of Z. liturata, but is probably identical with Z. cinerens. It measures up to 4¼ inches across the wings, and is of a delicate mottled grey and brown tint, with the hind wings and central portion of the dorsal surface of the abdomen bright chocolate brown. The larvae of this and the following species live in the centre of the stems of large forest gums, and are said to take a number of years to come to maturity.
Macleay’s wood moth, Zeuzera macleayi, said to be identical with Herrick-Schafer’s Eudoxula boisduvalli, has a large cylindrical body, and is the giant of the family, measuring up to 10 inches across the wings. They are brown thickly mottled with grey scales; when taken they are generally found clinging to the tree trunks, upon which each female deposits many thousands of small shot-like eggs.
Olliff has given a detailed description of Leto staceyi, and an account of a variety (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1887). In a general account of these wood-moths (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1894) I recorded a number of Thornton’s observations.
Family 8. Bag Moths — Psychidae
The members of this group are more remarkable in the caterpillar than in the moth stage, for as soon as they emerge the larvae construct protective caps of silken threads and bits of their food-plant, which as they increase in size become regular silken sacks open at the neck, through which the head and fore-legs protrude as they crawl about, but retract at the least alarm. They take their popular name of “Bag” or “Case Moths” from this peculiar habit, and the different species construct different forms of bags and ornament them with sticks or leaves. In Germany they are called “Sacktragers”; in America are known as “Basket Worms”; and the family is fairly represented all over the world.
This country is rich in large species, some of which were noticed as curiosities at a very early date, and Westwood described and figured most of our bag moths (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1854) under the Genus Oiketicus: McCoy in his “Podromus of Natural History of Victoria” Decade iv. gave additional notes on the habits of two of our common species; and an interesting paper on how they construct their portable homes will be found in the “Victorian Naturalist” by Hill (1898). The caterpillars themselves are short, naked, dull green creatures with stout horny heads, and are apparently so well protected from their many enemies that one would hardly expect to find them suffer from the attacks of parasites. But they must have some weak point in their armour for a very large percentage, even when collected and kept in breeding cages, produce only wasp and fly parasites. When full grown the caterpillar closes up the neck of its bag and fastens it by a stout silken band to a twig before changing into the chrysalid state; but while the male turns round and pupates head downward, the female remains head up as before, and when she casts her pupal skin is an aborted wingless creature, with small head and legs; the body simply develops into a great swollen sack of eggs, which hatch out in her body, or in the shelter of the cocoon; and the larvae make their way out at the open tip of the bag, each attached to a silken thread, a squirming mass of hundreds of little black creatures, leaving her only a shrivelled skin in the cocoon. The male moth, which is rare, is a very active creature, which dashes about as soon as he emerges from the pupal case, and damages his wings (even when bred in captivity) before he can be caught. He has curious toothed antennae; the head and body are thickly clothed with fine hairs; the body has telescopic segments, capable of being protracted to double their ordinary length when impregnating the female enclosed in her cocoon. The wings are narrow, very lightly covered with scales, and without any very distinctive pattern.
Family Liparidae.
1. Teara contraria (Walker). ♀.
2. Teara contraria (Walker). Caterpillar.
3. Teara contraria (Walker). ♂.
4. Teara contraria (Walker). Bag shelter among the foliage of Eucalyptus albens.
About 13 species of these moths are described from Australia, of which several are very common at times in the bush. Saunders’ Case Moth, Metura elongata, is our largest species; the larva constructs an elongate silken sack often up to 4 or 5 inches in length, broadest in the centre and tapering to both extremities; the outside is covered with short lengths of sticks nibbled from the food plant, or picked up during its wanderings. On an average these sticks are about as long as wooden matches, and are securely attached at irregular distances, the lower ones often extending beyond the silken tip. The caterpillar, of which only the head, thorax, and fore-legs can be seen, is a stout, naked, dull brown grub barred with black and reddish orange, measuring about 2 inches in length. The female moth differs so little from the caterpillar that it is hardly worth noticing, but the active winged male, with a wing expanse of about 2 inches, has the head and thorax thickly clothed with bright reddish orange down, and the dusky wings are lightly clothed with fine scales. Though the moth is a somewhat rare insect, the bag cocoon can be often found on a twig or attached to a fence, for in spite of the large house they carry they are great travellers. The Faggot Case-moth, Entometa ignoblis, forms a very different kind of portable home; the silken sack is covered with a coat of stout sticks which are generally cut from the gum trees and laid parallel to each other, and closely fastened to the silken surface, so that it reminds one of a bundle of faggots. They vary much in size and length; the larger measures up to 3 inches; one stick will be often found projecting an inch or more beyond the others; this is said to be a resting place for the male moth when seeking the enclosed female. She is of the usual obese form; of a general brown tint, the head and thorax creamy white spotted with black. The male moth with a wing expanse of 1¼ inches is of a uniform brown colour. The Leaf Case-moth, Thyridopteryx hubneri, forms a shorter oval silken sack averaging about 2½ inches in length and broad in proportion, covered with different kinds of leaves, for they feed on many shrubs and trees; but the commonest are clothed with bits of gum leaves attached only on the upper edge, and might be likened to a rag mat. When they infest pine trees in the garden, they are uniformly clothed with short lengths of pine needles and have a much neater appearance. The caterpillar is a stout black grub with the head and thorax dull white, mottled with brown. The male moth is a pretty little creature, with reddish brown antennae, the body thickly clothed with black down; the wings have very few scales, and are almost transparent, with a slight blotch in the centre of the hind pair.
The Ribbed Case-moth, Thyridopteryx herrichii, differs from the others in constructing a smooth white silken bag, oval in form, angled on the sides, and with a slender tail at the base; and the long attenuated neck forms a regular stalk when attached to the twig; it measures about 2 inches, and is never covered with sticks or leaves. The caterpillar is blackish brown with the head and first thoracic segment lighter coloured. The moth is about 1 inch across the wings, thickly clothed with black hairs, and a reddish orange spot behind the thorax; the wings are semitransparent, with very few scales.
Family 9. Cup or Slug Moths — Limacodidae
These are moderate sized moths with plump bodies thickly clothed with shaggy hairs, retracted heads, and toothed antennae. The caterpillars are curious short stout slug-like creatures feeding on the surface of the foliage; their feet are almost obsolete, while the under surface is quite flat, soft and fleshy; the whole body rests on the leaf when crawling along like that of a snail. The upper surface is saddle-shaped, with the two extremities raised and ornamented with fleshy spiny tubercles, with little bunches of sharp retractile spines like rosettes, which can be withdrawn into the tubercle or erected at will; the spines are sharp and appear to be hollow, and give a smart sting if they touch the body; in some of the American species, the stinging sensation is so severe as to cause serious swellings. When full grown they spin curious egg-shaped, brown, parchment-like cocoons attached at the base to the twig, with the apex rounded and forming a circular cap or lid, which, closely cemented on, is loosened and pushed off by the enclosed moth when she emerges. They do not pupate as soon as the cocoon is finished, but remain for a long time in a semi-caterpillar state before the chrysalis is formed.
The Painted Cup Moth, Limacodes longerans, is one of our commonest species. The female is about 1¾ inches across the wings; has a very large abdomen; is of a general dull brownish tint; the head and thorax are slightly coloured with red, and the under surface dark brown, the wings chocolate brown, with the outer margins light brown. The much smaller male has semitransparent wings, with the head and thorax marked with bright red. The larvae feed on eucalypts and are of a delicate green colour and of the typical form; about 1 inch in length; with four large tubercles at each end carrying a rosette of retractile red spines; the centre is marked with red and blue, and the outer margins are fringed with short tubercles. They form regular oval cocoons generally attached on their sides to the twig or bark. The Mottled Cup Moth, Doratifera vulnerans, is another common species, the larvae of which sometimes attack the foliage of apricot trees. It is a larger slug caterpillar than the last, with a patch of bright yellow in the middle of the back. The cocoons are pear-shaped with the apex somewhat contracted, showing the lid more distinctly. They sometimes swarm over the bush about Sydney N.S. Wales. The moths are of a general reddish brown tint with the fore wings marbled in the centre with a redder shade; the hind wings are lighter brown; they are somewhat smaller than the last species.
Doratifera quadriguttata is of a dull reddish tint; the fore wings are crossed with a row of 3 darker raised spots, the hind wings being much lighter: the female measures about 1¼ inches, the male somewhat smaller. The larvae, when young, cluster together up to a dozen in number, and feed on the under-side of the leaf, but when full grown they scatter about, destroying much of the foliage of the gum trees. Numbers were collected near Gosford N.S.W. about the end of February. They are short and broad, black, with a pair of dull yellow fleshy horns in front, and 4 tubercles surmounted with bunches of yellow spines tipped with black at each extremity; the centre of the flattened back has rows of short yellow spines with a fringe of similar ones round the outer margins. When full grown they form the usual egg-shaped brown cocoon.
D. acasta is a very similar moth, with a row of 6 or more similar spots crossing the fore wings. The larvae feed in the same manner, and are very plentiful toward the end of summer in the Bathurst district, N.S.W. Rainbow has figured the larvae of this species in the “Records of the Australian Museum” 1904.
The curious warty, pale green, oval, slug-like caterpillar with a yellow stripe down the centre of the back that is figured by Scott as Apoda xylomeli feeds upon the under surface of the leaves of the waratah; and when at rest along the midrib of the leaf, with the yellow dorsal stripe in line, in spite of its size it is very hard to detect, and is a wonderful instance of protective colouration.
Family 10. Tiger Moths — Arctiidae
This family, including the Lithosiidae, known to collectors as “Footmen,” is now one of the largest divisions of the moths that were once all grouped among the true silkworms. The larvae of most of the species are short hairy grubs popularly known as “woolly bears,” feeding on all kinds of low plants, and common in our gardens. In this country they comprise a number of delicate and often very handsome moths of medium size, with moderately long pectinate antennae, the body often large, and the wings brightly coloured. The “Footmen” differ from the “Tiger” moths in having the fore wings longer, more slender, and folded over the shorter, more elongate body; they take their popular name from the livery-like pattern of their markings, as the latter take theirs from the tiger-like stripes and spots; while others again are known as “Ermine” moths from their soft silken wings.
The Genus Tigriodes contains a number of small moths hiding under or among foliage and therefore not often noticed. Tigriodes alterna is of a uniform yellowish brown tint, with darker brown markings upon the thorax and wings, forming zig-zag lines across the fore pair, and clouding the hind ones. It measures about 1 inch across the wings and ranges from Victoria into New South Wales. T. furcifera is slightly smaller, of a bright yellow on the fore wings, with three slender parallel stripes separating into finer lines at the extremities; the hind pair paler with traces of black lines toward the edges; there is a wedge-shaped patch of the same colour on the thorax. Another species common about Sydney N.S.W. is T. heminephes, pale orange yellow with the apical edges of the wings and thorax blotched with blackish brown.
Among the “Footmen” we have in the Genus Spilosoma a number of fine white to greyish brown moths, mottled with blackish spots and dashes. The Light Ermine, Spilosoma obliqua, is common in Victoria and N.S. Wales; it has a wing measurement of 2 inches; is of a uniform dull white, lightly mottled over the wings with dark brown spots, some of them forming a slender irregular transverse band across; the abdomen is red with a dorsal stripe of black dots. Spilosoma fulvohirta is about the same size, but much more darkly and thickly marked with brown, also forming dark stripes on the thorax. Spilosoma fuscinula is a much smaller moth, slightly over 1 inch across the wings; it has a general rich pink tint, very variably spotted and blotched with black; the latter is sometimes quite the predominating colour, in others only marking the tips; the hind wings are spotted in the centre and on the hind margins only. The larvae are short, flattish, hairy grubs of a reddish colour, and feed upon the foliage of young gum trees.
The Genus Termissa contains a number of smaller pretty little moths flying low and hiding among the foliage; about 10 species are well known. Termissa shepherdi, slightly over 1 inch across the wings, has the fore pair broad at the tips, is blackish brown, with 3 irregular yellow transverse bars; the hind pair yellow, with two rounded marks on the outer margin. T. nivosa is a smaller moth of a delicate creamy white, with the front and outer margins of the fore wings delicately edged with dark yellow and black, and with two indistinct spots on the front margin; there is a small dot on each hind wing. Anderson says about Melbourne the larvae are to be found under the bark of gum trees in August. Clauca rubricosta measures 1 inch across the wings; is of a general blackish tint with the palpi and collar behind the head dull red, a slender costal stripe of reddish yellow along the fore wings, and a yellow spot on the centre of the inner margin forming a distinctive mark when the wings are folded; the hind pair are pale yellow with dark edges. The Genus Mosoda contains several moths whose larvae feed upon moss and lichens on the surface of the rocks about Sydney. Mosoda anartoides, under 1 inch across the wings, has the fore pair dark brown, delicately mottled; the hind pair dull orange yellow irregularly edged with brown. M. consolatrix, a smaller moth, has the fore wings greyish mottled brown; the hind pair pale buff. M. jocularis is slightly smaller, pale buff yellow; the fore wings tipped and speckled with black and the outer tips of the hind pair clouded with brown. The Genus Comarchis contains 8 described species, all small moths; C. aspectatella is under 1 inch across the wings, the fore pair grey barred with yellow, and the hind pair pale ochreous; it is common in January on Mt. Kosciusko; Eutane terminalis and Asura lydia are two little black moths thickly mottled with dark orange yellow forming bars and spots on the fore wings; the hind wings of the former are yellow in the centre, thickly margined with black; in A. lydia the yellow of the hind wings is divided in the centre by a black band. The larvae feed upon moss. The larvae of the Speckled Footman (Deiopeia pulchella) feed upon the forget-me-not; it is of a bright leaden colour, with a white stripe down the back and red spots on the sides of the segments. The moth has a very wide range over the world, and has probably spread from Europe. I have generally taken these moths on the grassy flats close to the sea shore; it is a slender winged creamy white moth, the fore wings mottled with black and red spots, and the hind pair irregularly edged with black. Nola metallopa is a silvery grey moth with the fore wings marked with darker coppery tints. The curious hairy larva feeds upon the foliage of young gum trees; when it moults the skin of the head remains attached to the hairs above the head, forming a regular crest.
The members of the small family Hypsidae, chiefly found in the tropics, are represented in this country by 4 genera containing about 18 species. They differ from the last in the venation of the hind wings, and are medium sized brown or yellow moths.
Nyctemera amica is one of our commonest species with a wide range from Victoria to Queensland; it may be found flying about or resting on flowers at all times of the year. The larvae, marked with black and red and furnished with tufts projecting on either side of the head, feed upon the “native ivy” (Senecio scandens). The moth is of a general blackish brown tint; the fore-wings are mottled with two irregular pale yellow blotches forming a transverse bar toward the tips; each of the hind pair has a more regular blotch in the centre.
Family 11. Brown Tails — Liparidae
These are the “Tussock” moths of America, and the “Vapourers,” “Brown-tails,” and “Black-arches” of English collectors; some of ours are known as “Bag-shelter moths” from the curious silken bags the gregarious larvae spin, in which they shelter during the day and come out at night to feed upon the foliage. The typical “Brown-tails” are stout, thickset moths with rather long hairy fore-legs generally stretched out in front when resting; the antennae are pectinate in both sexes, and the abdomen is tipped with tufts of downy hairs; in some species the females are wingless. They lay their eggs in clusters on the under-side of the leaves, covering them over with a felted mass of the hairs from the tip of the abdomen.
The famous “Gypsy Moth,” common in Europe, belongs to this group; it was introduced into the State of Massachusetts, where it has multiplied so enormously that it has become a regular plague, and though hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent in fighting it, it is still a serious pest. Porthesia obsoleta, one of our typical species, measures about 1½ inches across the wings, and is pure white with a black body tipped with golden brown hairs. It was described by Donovan in 1815 in his “Insects of New Holland,” and is more common in Victoria than New South Wales. Trichetra marginalis is a moth with a wingless female; the male is a little larger than the last species; is of a uniform greyish brown colour, with the outer edges of the fore wings white, and the hind pair pale brown. The larva feeds upon the foliage of gum trees.
Family Psychidae.
1. Entometa ignoblis (Walker). Cocoon of Faggot Case-moth.
2. Entometa ignoblis (Walker). Cocoon made with Cherry stalks.
3. Thyridopteryx herrichii (Westwood).
4. Metura elongata (Saunders).
5. Thyridopteryx hubneri (Westwood). Cocoon made of gum leaves.
6. Thyridopteryx hubneri (Westwood). Cocoon made of pine needles.
The Genus Teara contains over 20 named species of the “Bag-shelter Moths,” with gregarious larvae. Teara contraria, one of the largest species, measures up to 2½ inches across the wings; it is of a general dark brown tint with a small white spot in the centre of each wing; the thorax thickly clothed with long lance-shaped plumes yellow at the tips; and the abdomen rich orange yellow barred with black. The caterpillars are thickly clothed with long hairs, and when they take up a position on the branch of their food tree (generally a eucalypt or wattle) they spin a silken bag, drawing the leaves and twigs together, but not acting like the “Leaf-rollers,” for the silk forms a regular felted brown covering which soon becomes full of their excrement and cast skins, among which they rest during the day. They trail out at night in a regular procession and often strip all the foliage of the tree. When full grown they crawl down the trunk and pupate in loose open cocoons (formed from their body hairs) buried in the ground, and the large liver-coloured silken bag remains long after they have deserted it. This species in some districts makes its home upon wattles, but in other localities attacks the eucalypts in a similar manner. Teara tristis is not more than 1¼ inches across the wings, and varies from blackish brown to silvery grey; the fore wings are marbled with white and yellow and a light circular spot in front; the hind ones are nearly black with a minute white spot in the centre; the head and thorax are grey; the abdomen black, barred and tipped with orange; it is common in Victoria and N.S. Wales, generally clinging to some low bush, and slow and sluggish in its movements. Teara melanostica is larger than the last; silvery grey, spotted, with the front edge and transverse bar black; hind wings yellow edged with brown; head and thorax silvery white, hind portion dark brown; abdomen barred, and tipped with yellow. The larvae feed upon the leptospermum bushes, and form soft loose cocoons. Ptilomacra senex is a large handsome moth about 3 inches across the straight, square-cut fore wings; is of a general dark brown colour with wavy irregular dark lines and scattered grey scales giving it a greyish tint. It is remarkable for its large feathery antennae.
Apina callisto is a brightly mottled yellow and brown moth that flies about in the daylight. Its curious hairy larvae feed upon the open grass lands, and are often very numerous. It has a wide range over Australia.
Chelepteryx collesi is one of our largest bat-like moths, measuring to 6 inches across the wings; it is of a uniform dark brown colour with an irregular marbled pattern upon the wings; but it varies much in size and pattern in the sexes. Where common they may be often seen fluttering round the street lamps in the suburbs of Sydney, N.S.W. This handsome moth was first taken to England by a Mr. Colles, after whom Grey described it (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1835). The caterpillars are great, reddish brown creatures, thickly clothed with stout spiny bristles, feeding on the small white stemmed eucalypts, and often found crawling over the rocks and fences. They spin long silken cocoons, and as they pupate force all the body spines through the silk, making the cocoon a very awkward thing to handle, for the fine spines are easily detached, and sticking into the fingers cause a very unpleasant itching.
The Genus Darala is peculiar to Australia; about 30 species have been described; their larvae are short, thick, black, hairy caterpillars often found crawling about in the gardens, and constructing soft fluffy or white silken cocoons attached to the foliage. Darala ocellata, one of our commonest species, measures 1½ inches across the wings, and is of a uniform brownish fawn colour, with two black spots in the middle of the fore wings and a pattern of spots or parallel black lines in the central portion. Darala acuta is slightly larger, with very variable markings upon a general greyish fawn to dull yellow ground; the fore wings are broad with an acute point at the extremity. The Wattle-moth, Teia anartoides, which in the larval state often appears in the orchards and destroys the apple-tree foliage, is sometimes very abundant. The larvae are short brown hairy grubs with a tuft of hairs standing out in front on either side of the head, and several stiff brushes of grey hairs upon the centre of the back. The males are much smaller than the females, and in the pupal state when hanging up in their loose flimsy cocoons can be easily distinguished. The adult female is wingless, simply crawling on to the top of her cocoon to lay her eggs and die. The male is a handsome little moth about 1 inch across the wings; the fore pair are dark brown marbled with slender lines and black spots, the hind pair bright yellow surrounded with black, and the outer edges yellow; the antennae are large and feather-like.
Ocinara lewinae is a handsome light reddish brown moth with darker lines running round the wings. It was described by Lewin in 1803, who figured it in colours and called it the “Hook Tip.” The larva is a slender caterpillar covered with fine hairs. They are gregarious, and web the leaves of the eucalypts together with a loose, open, silken strand.
Family 12. Silkworm Moths — Bombycidae
In this group I include several families that may be broadly placed together as typical silkworm moths. Some writers divide them into three families; Packard on the other hand adds a number of other well defined groups, such as the Psychidae, Arctiidae, and others, to the Bombycidae.
Typical silkworm moths have thick heavy bodies, with small heads furnished with pectinate antennae and an imperfect mouth; the wings are large and often falcate. The larvae are usually fleshy thickset caterpillars covered with scattered tubercles, and are of somewhat sluggish habits; but all form stout silken cocoons. Our silkworm moths are more closely related to the Atlas moths of India, Saturnidae, than to the silkworm moth of domestic fame, Bombyx mori, which, originally a native of China, is now bred and cultivated in many parts of the world for commercial silk.
Bombyx trimacula measures 1¾ inches across the wings; it is a dark brown moth, mottled and marbled with white on the head, thorax, and tip of the abdomen, and forming a delicate wavy pattern across the fore wings interspersed with some blackish markings; it is found in Victoria. Odonestis australasiae has been known under many different names: Lewin called it Bombyx nasuta, and his specific name was much more appropriate than the former, as it has the head produced into a regular point in front. The larger female measures about 2 inches across the wings, which are of a uniform dull reddish brown colour with faint markings on the fore wings; the hind ones are of a lighter tint. The short hairy caterpillars have a tuft of hairs standing out on either side of the head; in their natural state they feed upon the foliage of the black wattle, forming white silken cocoons, attached to the plant. It is sometimes called the “Long-nosed Wattle Moth,” and in Victoria is said to turn its attention to the apple-tree foliage. Pinara despecta is a large, handsome, reddish fawn moth, with fore wings ornamented with several zig-zag bands across the centre. It is a thickset moth, often measuring over 3 inches across the wings. The larva feeds upon the foliage of the eucalyptus, and is a very slender caterpillar of a general greyish brown tint, with the sides of the body fringed with fine downy hairs, and when it is resting the fringes lie along the twig so closely that it is very hard to detect. It spins a large silken cocoon tinted with pink, attached to the leaves of the gum trees. Cosmotriche exposita is a pretty little thickset moth of a uniform greyish brown tint, covered with fine soft downy hairs round the body and hind wings; the fore pair are thickly mottled with dark brown; the larger female measures about 1½ inches across the wings; the smaller male is a much darker brown insect with fine mottled fore wings. The caterpillar feeds upon the foliage of the “she-oak” (Casuarina), and is a slender greyish creature lightly clothed with grey hairs, marked with yellow and carmine on the sides of each segment, and black marks on the back. It forms an elongate oval cocoon attached to the twigs.
The second group, Notodontidae, are known as “Prominents” to English collectors from the curious angular form of the caterpillars, though this is not noticeable in our typical forms. The Banksia Moth, Danima banksiae, was named by Lewin after its food plant, though it feeds equally upon the Hakea bushes. It is a very handsome moth, nearly 3 inches across the wings, which are of a general slate brown tint; the thorax and tip of abdomen are thickly blotched with white, which is also sprinkled over the body and fore wings in the form of little white scales; the central portion of the abdomen is orange yellow. The caterpillar is a rather slender, cylindrical, ochreous brown creature with the tip of the body lead colour, and the whole surface irregularly blotched with white spots encircled with black, forming irregular bands round each segment. They are generally found feeding in groups of three or four, and when disturbed turn both the head and tip of the abdomen over the back, and protrude two red fleshy filaments from the under-surface of the first segment.
The Saturnidae are our most important group for size and colour, and an immense fellow, Coxinocera hercules, is found in Cape York. Another very beautiful Chinese species, Attacus cynthia, which feeds on the foliage of Ailanthus glandulosa, has been accidentally introduced into Australia, and is sometimes taken about the Sydney gardens.
The Genus Antheraea contains some of our finest moths; others are found in Japan and India that yield a strong brown silk. Our commonest species, Antheraea eucalypti, is variable both in colour and size, ranging from delicate fawn to dull brick red, and is from 4 to 5½ inches across the wings, which in the male are smaller and narrower behind; each wing is ornamented with a circular eye-spot in the centre, those on the hind pair being larger and ringed with black, with narrow irregular dark bands running round or across the hind margin. The tip of the fore wings in the smaller males is rounded, corrugated, and touched with pink. The large green caterpillar, covered with scattered tubercles tipped with clusters of retractile red and blue spines, feeds upon the foliage of eucalypts, but has acquired a taste for the foliage of the cultivated pepper tree (Schinus mollis). It constructs a stout, hard, dark brown cocoon in which it pupates, and is furnished with a curious spine at the base of the fore wings, which enables the moth to cut her way out through the tough cocoon when ready to emerge. A. helena, very similar in general appearance to the former, is slightly larger, with broader wings of a more uniform reddish brown colour, without a white mark on the fore wings; the inner bands are more irregular and rounded, with the parallel bar not continued into the hind wings. A. simplex is a smaller species varying in colour from pale yellow to reddish brown, with smaller eye-spots, those upon the hind wings somewhat oval, broadly marked along the costal nervure; the parallel bar and band on each hind wing are very narrow, and both pairs are wrinkled at the tips. The black and yellow caterpillars are very common at times in the Richmond and Clarence River scrubs, N.S. Wales, and more gregarious in their habits, often covering the bushes with their light coloured rather flimsy cocoons, which are very subject to the attacks of ichneumons. A. janetta is about the same size as A. eucalypti, but with flatter broader wings of a much duller reddish brown tint without any eye-spots, and only a simple white spot in the centre of each of the fore pair; two fine irregular lines run round the outer half of both pairs with an extra row of small spots along the hind wings. The larva forms a hard shell-like cocoon on the trunks of the she-oaks. A. loranthiae, described by Lucas from North Queensland, is a large handsome reddish moth, the larvae of which when pupating form their cocoons in a mass on the top of a stump or branch.
Family 13. Loopers — Geometridae
In this family there are a number of handsome delicate moths with slender bodies, large flattened wings often toothed round the edges, which when the insects are at rest (usually upon the under surface of leaves) are pressed flat and spread out like a fan against the surface. The caterpillars are slender cylindrical creatures, green or brown in tint and so imitative of the twigs or foliage among which they feed, that it is possible to pick off a branch upon which a caterpillar is resting without observing the creature until it moves; they are furnished with the usual six legs on the thoracic segments close behind the head, and two pairs of abdominal legs near the anal claspers, so that they have legs at each end, and when moving along they draw the hind portion of the body up to the head before the front legs are moved: thus at every step forward the body is arched up into a semicircle, from which habit they are popularly known as “Loopers.” The best method of collecting the moths and their caterpillars is by beating or shaking the low scrub in the early morning; and the latter are very easily bred in captivity if supplied with material from their food plants. These moths are well represented in Australia; most of the earlier species have been described by Walker and Guérin (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.). Meyrick has classified and described a great number of species of this family in a series of papers entitled “A Revision of Australian Lepidoptera,” which the student will find in the volumes dating from 1886 to 1891.
The Genus Euchloris contains a number of beautiful moths with delicate pale green wings frequently marbled with white lace-like tracery. Meyrick (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1887) lists 43 species; and Lower, in his “Catalogue of Victorian Heterocera,” published in the “Victorian Naturalist,” lists 15 as Victorian species; but some of these have a wide range.
Euchloris submissaria measures about 1½ inches across the outspread wings; its general colour is rich deep green, with the antennae, front margin of each fore wing, outer edges of both pairs of wings, a central stripe on the thorax and body, and the legs creamy buff white. The caterpillar is of the usual cylindrical form, varying from dull buff to light brown, and it feeds upon the foliage of the black wattle.
Crypsiphona occultaria measures nearly 2 inches across the wings, and is of a uniform light greyish brown on the upper surface, very finely banded in irregular circles; but the under surface is pearly white, spotted on the fore wings with black, crimson and brown; the hind ones are banded with brown and crimson. It has a very wide range, and has a habit of resting against weather-worn posts and walls, its outspread wings matching the colour of its surroundings. The larva feeds upon the foliage of the gum trees, and is of a uniform dull green tint, striped down the sides, the head pointed in front; the whole caterpillar looks wonderfully like a eucalyptus twig.
The Genus Selidosema contains a large number of cosmopolitan species; Meyrick lists 29 species as Australian; they are usually grey or brown with darker lines and blotches. Selidosema lyciaria is one of our largest species, measuring about 2 inches across the wings; is of a uniform brownish grey, with both pairs of wings marbled in a regular pattern with black and chocolate brown, and crenulated round the edges. The larvae feed upon the black wattle, and vary much in colour, from grey to dark brown; the head is curiously notched, and there are two little projections upon the back by which they can be easily identified. S. excursaria has a range from S. Australia to N.S. Wales, and is one of our commonest species; it measures 1½ inches across the wings, and is of a uniform dull greyish tint, very finely pencilled with darker transverse markings, but is somewhat variable in colour. The caterpillars are of a general light brown colour, with the sides pencilled with fine parallel white lines running down the whole length of the body; they are said to feed upon a number of different plants, but are common on the wattles. S. canescaria, slightly larger than the last, has a dull grey tint, thickly mottled with dark brown wavy lines; it ranges from S. Australia to Queensland. Another species, S. acaciaria, is a little larger, of somewhat similar colour, with whitish markings; it is common in this country, and is also found in India, Ceylon, and S. Africa.
Lophodes sinistraria is slightly over 2 inches in the large females; the sexes vary much in size and colour. They are of a general dark chocolate brown tint blotched with grey along the front of the fore wings, with a distinct row of short grey stripes round the hind wings in a line with the dentate crenulations. It has a wide range over Victoria and Eastern Australia. The larvae feed upon the foliage of the black wattle, but I have also recorded them damaging the foliage of young apricot trees. They are reddish brown caterpillars, covered with transverse bands of darker coloured spots, and they measure about 1½ inches in length.
The Genus Thalaina contains 5 described species, all of which are very handsome moths easily separated from the other loopers. T. clara measures 1½ inches across the wings; it is of a uniform pearly white, with the fore wings marked with regular transverse bands of reddish brown forming the letter W when viewed from the side; the hind pair have only a blackish blotch on the outer edge. It has a wide range, and in the larval state feeds upon wattles. T. inscripta is about the same size, with a similar ground colour of white, but the markings on the fore-wings form a less perfect W, and there is a row of short bars of the same colour round the edges; the hind pair are more deeply blotched. It has a wide range from Tasmania over the south and eastern portion of Australia. Gastrophora henricaria is a large handsome moth, in which the sexes differ both in size and colouration; the smaller brown male has bright orange hind wings, and very fine feathered antennae; the female has the fore wings mottled but not striped. The slender dark brown striped larva, according to Anderson (Victorian Naturalist 1902) feeds upon the foliage of eucalyptus.
Family 14. Cutworm Moths — Noctuidae
This from an economic point of view is a very important family, for the cut-worms do an immense amount of damage to pasturage and gardens. These moths are of medium size with stout bodies; their fore wings generally speaking are narrow, stiff, and triangular, with the broader rounded hind ones folded beneath; the antennae are only slightly toothed in the males of a few species, and the mouth is produced into a tubular proboscis with which they can suck the nectar out of the flowers. In colouration they vary from bright brown to black, a few being marked with white or metallic tints; they are nocturnal in their habits, resting under bark, rocks or other sheltered places, and at night often flying into the lighted lamps. The larvae, which are known as “cut-worms,” “plague caterpillars,” and “army worms,” are usually elongate, dull brown, or greenish, naked caterpillars of a uniform thickness with 8 pairs of legs. When full grown they pupate underground, forming no regular cocoon, though a few groups form a flimsy silken one attached to their food plant.
The world wide Genus Agrotis contains a number of variable forms whose larvae are typical “cut-worms,” hiding in the ground or under rubbish during the day, and coming out at night to feed. The short stout moths have the head scaly; the fore wings black to grey, the hind pair always lighter coloured; the antennae of the males are slightly pectinate.
The “Bugong Moth,” Agrotis infusa, has gone under many different specific names, and is quite an historical insect. It is a dark brown moth, the fore wings marked with two parallel black lines, two dull grey spots in the centre and wavy lines at the extremities; the hind pair are light brown. These moths frequently appear in immense swarms, and take their popular name from the Bugong Mountains among the rocks of which they used to congregate in millions; they formed an important food supply to the natives who used to sweep them off into their bags, and after denuding them of their wings and scales over a small fire, pound the bodies (at this time distended with eggs) into a dough or paste. Dr. Bennett has given an interesting account of this in his “Naturalist in Australia.” A rather curious error regarding this Bugong Moth has crept into popular natural history books. In the Rev. J. G. Wood’s “Insects Abroad,” he figures and describes a butterfly, Euploea hamata, as the Bugong Moth; Aflalo in his “Natural History of Australia” makes the same statement, and in a recent magazine article on “Insects as Food” Theodore Wood repeats the same error.
Scott (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1867) gives an account of an appearance of Bugong Moths in Sydney, when they were so numerous one Sunday morning at North Shore that the service at St. Thomas’ Church could not be held, and some observant persons counted 80,000 moths on the windows. They have appeared at irregular intervals about Sydney and the coastal districts in similar swarms, the last time being in 1905.
Agrotis breviuscula is a smaller variable species ranging from reddish brown to grey; the antennae are long; the fore wings have a dark spot of irregular form in the centre, a few fine dots along the edge, and a fine line round the tips; the hind wings are light brown. Agrotis ypsilon is not unlike the “Bugong Moth” and by some writers is considered only a large variety, but it has a distinct mark like the Greek letter e in the centre of the fore wings, the tips finely marbled with wavy lines; and the light brown hind wings give a metallic sheen.
Leucania unipuncta is one of the most destructive caterpillars found in North America, where it is known as the “Army worm,” devouring crops, grass, and garden stuff. Though the moth has been known for many years in Australia it was not until 1903–4 that it was observed as a plague caterpillar, attacking crops and grass nearly all over Eastern Australia. The caterpillars, 1¼ inches long, are dull olive green with light stripes down the back and sides. The moth measures 1½ inches across the wings, which are of a uniform reddish fawn colour finely speckled with little black scales.
The “Boll Worm,” or “Maize Moth,” Heliothis armigera, is another cosmopolitan cut-worm which does a great deal of damage to cotton bolls and maize; is common in the pea crops, and also damages tomatoes. The moth measures about 1 inch across the wings; the fore pair are greyish yellow with purplish-brown tints, but are very variable in colouration; the hind wings are silvery grey with the apical portions dark brown; the latter pair are constant in their markings.
The handsome little moths belonging to the Genus Thalpochares are remarkable for their curious plump naked larvae, which feed upon different kinds of scale insects, at the same time covering themselves with a portable cocoon composed of fragments of the coccids matted together with silken strands. Thalpochares coccophaga is a pretty creamy winged moth with the basal portion shaded with brown and reddish tints, and measures about ¾ of an inch across the wings. The larvae feed upon a number of different insects native to the bush, and have lately been of some economic value in destroying olive scale (Lecanium oleae) in the orchards. Several other species have been described with identical habits. Earias fabia is a pest of the cotton plant; I have bred numbers obtained in the cotton bolls growing at the Hawkesbury College, N.S.W.; the larva is a slender dull green grub, which when full grown forms a stout, oval, light brown, felted cocoon attached to the dead foliage. The moth is slightly over one inch across the wings, which are of a uniform pale yellow colour, each with a greenish bar in the centre; the hind pair are lighter. In forming such a well-made cocoon this moth seems out of place in the Noctuids; and Lower says in his Catalogue, “that some writers refer this moth to the Bombycina.” Westwood and Swinhoe place it in the Tortricidae.
The Genus Hadena contains a number of Australian species rather more abundant in Tasmania than the mainland; it is another cosmopolitan group, found in Europe and America. Hadena expulsa, slightly over 1 inch across the wings, has the fore pair of a general grey tint, mottled with brown; the hind pair are darkest towards the apex and are fringed on the margin with fine white down.
Mamestra ewingii is typical of another large world wide genus. Its larvae are among our most destructive cut-worms to crops and grass: it is a pale slate-coloured moth, marked with short parallel lines of a darker tint on the tips of the wings. Spodoptera exempta was figured in the Agricultural Gazette 1898 under the name of Phlegetona carbo. It is one of our climbing cut-worms, and in that year the caterpillars swarmed all over the Camden and South Coast districts of N.S. Wales. They are very active grubs, olive green to almost black in colour, striped on the sides with fine yellow lines; and when full grown measure 1½ inches in length. The moth is under 1½ inches across the wings; is of a general dark brown tint, indistinctly mottled all over the fore wings with yellowish or sometimes silvery grey scales; the hind wings are silvery and semitransparent.
Prodenia littoralis is a handsome moth of about the same dimensions as the last; the fore wings are dark brown finely striped and pencilled with grey lines; the hind pair pearly white. The moth often lays her eggs upon the foliage of apple and other trees; the young on hatching out feed upon the foliage but afterwards make their way to the ground. Plusia verticillata is a species that feeds upon the foliage of peas, beans, and potatoes; the slender pale green grub differs from the typical “cut-worm” in moving about like a “looper,” and when full grown pupates in a flimsy silken cocoon it spins upon the under surface of the leaf. The moth, measuring 1½ inches across the wings, has the fore pair brown tinted with mauve, marbled with a coppery tint, and with two elongate oval spots of silvery white scales in the centre of each, and fine lines behind; the hind wings are dark brown fringed with grey down. Plusia argentifera is a smaller form with a silvery mark in the centre of each fore wing. The handsome dark brown caterpillar of Calogramma festiva, which was figured by Donovan in his “Insects of New Holland,” feeds upon the foliage of the Crinea lilies; they are sometimes plentiful in the Botanic Gardens. This moth measures 1½ inches across the wings, and is of a uniform pale creamy-yellow colour, thickly mottled on the base of the wings with red and black.
We now come to a curious allied group, the Ophiderinae, the members of which are known as the “Orange-piercing moths”; they are large handsome insects with the head and thorax thickly clothed with scales forming a regular crest, and furnished with a proboscis which, pointed and barbed at the tip, enables them to thrust it through the rind of oranges and other ripe fruit and suck up the juice. Tryon has figured and written an interesting account of these moths in the Queensland Agricultural Journal Vol. ii. 1898.
Maenas salaminia measures 3½ inches across the wings; the fore pair are bright olive green, with a broad stripe of creamy white along the anterior margins; the hind wings are an orange yellow colour, and each with the margin and centre black. The thorax is bright olive green, and the abdomen of an orange yellow colour. It ranges from the northern parts of New South Wales to North Queensland, and at Cairns I used to capture them at night with a net and bull’s-eye lantern, as they hovered round bunches of ripe bananas hanging under the house. Othreis fullonica, slightly larger than the last, has the fore wings mottled with grey and brown among the olive green; the body and hind wings are of the same rich orange colour as the former species, with smaller black markings on the hind margins. This species ranges from Queensland to Africa, India, Ceylon, and the New Hebrides. Argadesa materna is about the same size, but has lighter coloured fore wings, and further distinguished by a much smaller black spot in the centre of each hind wing. The caterpillars of these moths are large handsome cylindrical creatures with the body humped up at the eleventh segment, and two large spots like eyes on either side of the body. They feed upon several different creepers in the scrub.
The Erebidae contains a number of large dark brown moths often curiously mottled with zig-zag lines running round the wings, and a dull coloured eye-spot in the centre of each fore wing. Several species are common in Australia; they often come into the house at night and will be found resting on the ceiling in the morning. One of the largest moths known, the great owl moth of Brazil, measuring a foot across the wings, belongs to this family. Dasypodia selenophora measures 3 inches across the wings, and is of a uniform pale chocolate brown tint; the outer margins of the wings are finely crenulated and spotted with white; the centre of each fore wing has a large irregular eye-spot of black, mauve and orange tints. It ranges from Australia to Tasmania and New Zealand. D. cymatoides, about the same size, is of a much darker brown colour, with less distinct eye-spots, a black transverse band behind each white one, and the whole of the inner surface thickly covered with zig-zag wavy lines. This species ranges from Sydney to North Queensland.
Sericea spectans is a slightly larger moth not unlike the last, but a little darker, with the transverse band thicker and more blurred, and with an eye-spot on each hind as well as each fore wing.
Family Ophiderinae.
1. Moenas (Ophideres) salaminia (Fabr.).
2. Othreis fullonica (Linn.). ♂.
4. Othreis fullonica (Linn.). ♀.
Family Noctuina.
3. Sericea spectans (Guérin).
(Original photo. Burton.)]
Family 15. Leaf Rollers — Pyralidae
These moths are a very interesting division of the smaller lepidoptera on account of the habits of their larvae, which live upon the foliage of different plants in small communities, matting and drawing the leaves together with silken strands and feeding under the shelter thus constructed; when ready to pupate they usually curl the remains of one of the half-devoured leaves into a flimsy cocoon with a little silk, from which the moth emerges later on in the season.
The majority of these moths are small and unattractive; at the same time we have some brightly green and yellow tinted species of medium size. The caterpillars are slender naked larvae, often green marked with black spots and a few scattered hairs; they are very active and drop to the ground whenever disturbed.
These moths are easily separated by specialists from the preceding groups by the structure of the nervures of the hind wings. Several specialists have undertaken their classification: Meyrick (Trans. Ent. Soc. London 1890) placed them as a group containing 8 families: Ragonet (Ann. Ent. Soc. France 1890), while restricting them to 2 families, made 17 smaller divisions which he called tribes: Lower, who partly follows Meyrick, gives 13 families in his “Catalogue”; I simply deal with them here as a group, describing a number of typical forms with their life histories.
Margarodes vertonalis is a handsome bright green moth, with the margins of the outer edges of both pairs of wings marked with dark reddish brown; it measures about 1½ inches across the wings. The caterpillars, about an inch in length, are bright green mottled with black; the head shining reddish brown. My specimens were collected in the Botanical Gardens, Sydney, at the end of January; they were matting the tips of the branches of one of the ornamental shrubs (Ochrosia moorei) into irregular rounded masses. They pupated a week later and emerged before the end of the month.
Sceliodes cordalis, measuring slightly over 1 inch across the wings, is of a uniform creamy tint; the whole of the fore wings are mottled with light brown, the tips blotched with the same colour; and the hind pair more spotted; my specimens were bred from the foliage of the egg plant.
Asopia farinalis is the well known “meal moth” common, in most parts of the world; the caterpillars feed upon all kinds of corn, bran, pollard, and flour; it mats its food particles together with a silken web into a tube in which it hides. The moth is often found upon the walls of feed houses, mills, &c., and sometimes comes into the light at night. It measures 1 inch across the wings, and has a ground colour of yellow buff to dull greyish yellow, blotched with a darker tint at the base and tip, the latter marbled with grey; the hind wings are silvery. Zinckenia recurvalis is a common little moth about Sydney; it is under 1 inch across the wings, which are of a dark brown tint, with a white bar traversing the centre of each wing, and with a second white spot on each fore wing towards the tip. The caterpillars are sometimes found destructive to salt-bush hedges about Sydney by stripping off the foliage and causing the bushes to die back.
Notarcha clytalis is a bright yellow moth with an irregular wavy line of black crossing the outer portions of the wings, and another shorter band near the base of each fore wing. The gregarious larvae are green spotted with black; they roll the leaves on the terminal branches of the Kurrajong into regular slender masses up to a foot or more in length, in which they finally pupate. It has a wide range over the country, rendering these handsome trees very unsightly when numerous. The larvae of Godara comalis is a greenish yellow caterpillar barred with lighter yellow at the back of each segment, and lightly clothed with long brown hairs; it feeds upon the leaves of the horse radish and turnip. The moth measures 1 inch across the wings; the fore pair are buff irregularly mottled with dark brown; the hind wings of a uniform silvery white with a brown patch at the apical margin.
Mecyna polygonalis defoliates the tree lucerne (Citysus prolifera); I have also bred it from broom bushes in gardens at Armidale, N.S.W., and on a native bush (Templetonia) in the western plains, so that it has a wide range: Mr. Lyell tells me it is very destructive to the foliage of willows in some parts of Victoria. The caterpillars are slender light green creatures spotted with black and white shaded with yellow on the sides; when full grown they spin a loose silken cocoon. The moth is slightly under 1½ inches across the wings; the fore pair are light brown, and the hind pair each blackish brown round the outer portion and bright yellow in the centre. The two introduced bee moths, Achraea grisella and Galleria melonella, belong to a division of this family: the moths lay their eggs about the hive, the grubs crawl in and feed upon the wax which they mat together with silken web, and if overlooked they destroy the whole of the hive; in the days of the old-fashioned hives they were a great source of trouble to bee-keepers, but now with well constructed bar-hives they are easily checked. The first named is of a uniform brown colour with the fore wings rounded; the second has the wings arcuate behind and irregularly mottled.
Aphomia latro measures about 1½ inches across its slender somewhat pointed fore wings; is of a general buff colour shot with fine black spots, and divided down the centre of the fore wings with a broad dull white parallel stripe; the hind wings silvery grey. The larvae live in small communities feeding upon and matting together the scape of the flower stalk of the grass trees, in which they pupate within an elongate white silken cocoon.
The Peach Moth, Conogethes punctiferalis, is a bright yellow moth thickly mottled with black spots. The larvae attack peaches when ripening, eating and webbing the surface and pupating on the side of the stone. It is common in the northern districts of N.S.W.
The “Mediterranean Flour Moth,” Ephestia kuhniella, though not an Australian moth, is worthy of note, for it is widely distributed over the country, and causes a lot of annoyance by the bad habits of its larvae of webbing the flour into masses with its silken strands. Another cosmopolitan moth, Plodia interpunctella, is known in America as the “Indian Meal Moth,” though it feeds upon all kinds of dried foods; it is a much smaller moth of a general brown tint, the apical portion of the wings much darker than the basal part. This moth also is very common in Australia.
Family 16. Bell Moths — Tortricidae
These moths have slender bodies; short generally broad fore wings, truncate at the extremities; the hind pair also broad; and when they are at rest during the day time their wings are folded flat down. The costal margins of the fore wings are much rounded when the wings are folded, giving a general bell shaped form; from which these moths take their popular name. They are sometimes called “leaf twisters” or “leaf rollers,” but differ from the true gregarious leaf roller caterpillars in seldom matting a number of the leaves together. The caterpillars also feed upon seeds.
The members of the Genus Cacaecia are interesting insects because several have been found attacking fruit in orchards: C. postvittana, was recorded by Olliff gnawing in apples like a codlin moth. It measures ¾ of an inch across the wings; is of a general dull yellow marked with brown, but its colour and markings are very variable. It has a wide range over Tasmania and the eastern coast of the mainland into Queensland; and about Sydney the caterpillars feed upon half a dozen different common native shrubs. French in his Handbook of the Destructive Insects of Victoria Pt. I. 1891 has named and figured one, C. responsana, the “Light Brown Apple Moth,” as an apple pest in Victoria; this is probably C. postvittana. C. Australasiae is a larger species of a dark brown colour; the fore wings are lightly mottled or marbled. C. lythrodana is a smaller, similar coloured moth, but the colouration is finer. Paramorpha aquilina is a tiny, creamy-grey moth not quite ½ an inch across the wings: in its native state it frequents damp or marshy ground, flying low among the herbage. The larva is a short, pale green grub that, in several of the orange growing districts, attacks the ripening oranges; boring through the skin, it feeds upon the pith between the rind and flesh, where it finally pupates and causes the orange to turn yellow and drop off.
The Lucerne Moth, Tortrix glaphyriana, is a small, dark yellow moth about ½ an inch across the wings; the fore pair are light buff with a silvery tint, blotched with irregular patches of dark brown. The caterpillars are dark green with scattered white hairs on the segments; they are a regular pest in lucerne paddocks in the Hunter River district, N.S. Wales, feeding upon the lucerne tops and drawing them together with silken threads. Arotrophora ombrodelta is a handsome little moth which I bred out of the seed pods of Acacia farnesiana growing near Lismore, N.S.W.; the yellowish brown caterpillar has a pink stripe down the back, and each segment is spotted with green; they devour the seeds and then pupate inside the pod close to the hole, through which the pupa works its head just before the moth is ready to emerge; the anal segments being ringed with fine spines enable it to screw right out of the hard pod, so that the moth is not damaged. The moth, under 1 inch across the wings, has the fore pair chocolate brown, mottled and darkest at the tips; the hind pair are brown. Meyrick says that the larva of another species feeds enclosed in a short, stiff, silken tube among the leaves of Lomantia silarfolia; and a third feeds in the flower cone of our common honeysuckle (Banksia serrata). The Codlin Moth, Carpocapsa pomonella, the world-wide pest to apple growers, is found in most parts of Australia; but though the reddish tinted caterpillar is universally known, there are a great many orchardists who do not know the moth, though it is easily recognised from all other species by the copper coloured blotch on the apical portion of the fore-wings.
We now come to an anomalous group, whose exact place in the classification of Lepidoptera has puzzled entomologists, but which is usually placed at the end of this family. These are the Cryptophaginae, whose larvae, naked, slender caterpillars, live in shallow chambers or short tunnels in the branches of the smaller forest trees. They cover the entrance to their burrow with a screen of loose silken web covered with gnawed bark and droppings. Resting during the day, they come out at night and, biting off some of the leaves, drag them down into the burrow (the ends often sticking out through the web) to feed on at their leisure. When full grown they pupate within the burrow. C. unipunctata is a very handsome satiny white moth about 1½ inches across the wings; the fore pair each have a single black dot in the centre; the abdomen is black fringed with yellow hairs forming a tuft at the extremity. In its native state the caterpillars feed upon the branches of our common honeysuckle (Banksia serrata), but have a very great liking for the branches of cherry trees in the orchards; where neglected, they often kill large branches by their attacks. C. irrorata is a larger moth, measuring up to 2 inches across the wings, the fore pair being very broad and square at the extremities; they are of a uniform greyish brown, slightly mottled with a darker pattern round the outer margins; the hind pair are silvery brown fringed round the edges. The larva feeds on the stems of Casuarina. C. rubriginosa is nearly as large as the last; the fore wings are reddish brown. There is a salmon tint on the thorax extending on to the base of the fore wings; the hind wings are brownish yellow. The larvae feed in the stems and branches of several species of Acacia.
Family 17. Grain and Clothes Moths — Micro-Lepidoptera
In concluding the Lepidoptera I place these families, often grouped together under the comprehensive term Micro-lepidoptera, in the above division. Most of these moths are small, but the group is very important in that it contains some of the most destructive pests of grain, cloth, &c., and they are world-wide in their range. Meyrick has made a special study of these moths, and has classified and described an immense number in a series of papers in the Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1878–1904.
The larvae of the different groups are usually slender naked grubs with a few scattered hairs, and are sometimes legless; but others again have from 14 to 18 pairs of legs. They feed upon all kinds of material, sometimes forming tubular cells out of their food, while others move about quite freely. The moths may be obtained by beating or shaking bushes, or breeding them from the material among which they feed.
The Family Oecophoridae is the most extensive in Australia; in his first paper on the group in 1883, Meyrick estimated that over 2,000 species would be discovered, and later in 1889 he had actually described 756 species, most of them new. The Genus Philobota contains 105 described species, many of them handsome brightly marked little moths. P. arabella, slightly over ¾ of an inch across the wings, is of a general greyish brown tint, with the central portions of the fore pair pale yellow edged with brown forming wedge-shaped patches. P. catascia, slightly larger, has the fore-wings silvery white, slightly clouded; the hind ones dull yellow in the centre fringed with light brown. P. productella a little smaller, is all silvery white, with yellowish tints in the hind pair; and P. agnesella is a larger silvery one with a narrow irregular dark stripe along the centre of each fore wing from the base to the apex. P. gascialis, a very different larger winged form, has the fore pair dark orange yellow, each with a broad brown blotch through the centre, and tip dark brown; the hind pair dull brown fringed with fine plumes. Macrobatha platychroa is under ½ an inch across the wings; the fore pair are marked with alternate bars of white and black, and the hind pair greyish brown. Heliocausta hemitelis, about twice the size, has the fore wings yellow, tipped and blotched with purplish brown, the blotch on each hind margin angular; the hind wings brown. Zonopetala decisiana, under ½ an inch across the wings, has the fore pair white, each with a large brown blotch across the centre, and others at the tip, and with a band of the same colour across the thorax; the hind wings light buff and fringed with hairs. The caterpillar of Ocystola hemicalypta constructs a protective covering about as thick and long as a large wax match out of a section of a gum twig, in which it lives and feeds after hollowing it out like a tube; these curious cocoons are not uncommon in the bush on the leaves of eucalypts.
The Gelechiadae is another large family recently revised by Meyrick (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1904); he says that these moths are not so numerous as in Europe, but as they are such small, inconspicuous insects there are probably a great number still to be discovered. He describes 274 species, of which 207 are new, and 85 of which belong to the Genus Protolechia. Several species that infest grain belong to this group: Gelechia simplicella, a tiny little brown moth, has pointed slender wings, the fore pair nearly black, with a very distinctive irregular white bar across each apical half. Meyrick has placed it in the Genus Anacampsis; it has a wide range over Tasmania and Australia: I have bred it from the foliage of Soy beans, which the larvae matted together and seriously damaged. Sitotroga cerealella is a tiny yellowish brown moth with pointed wings. It has a wide range round the Australian coast, and has been introduced from Europe or America with corn upon which the larvae feed. It is known as the “Angoumois Grain Moth” from the province of that name in France, where in 1760 it swarmed over the country and nearly caused a famine. I have bred it from wheat at Bingara N.S.W.
The Elachistidae were described and revised by Meyrick (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1897), who lists 254 species, most of which were new. He says: “The species of this family are almost all small and therefore often neglected by collectors. Larva with 10 prolegs seldom almost apodal, usually mining in leaves, or amongst seeds or in stems, sometimes case-bearing, rarely amongst spun leaves.”
The larvae of the members of the Genus Batrachedra, according to Meyrick, feed usually upon seeds. B. arenosella, a small dull pale yellow moth with spotted fore wings and grey hind ones, is common over Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The larvae web the seeds and stalks of sedges together, and form a cocoon among the seeds. I have bred a species of Batrachedra, B. sparsella, Walk., but can find no record of this species in Meyrick’s list. The larva of this moth spins a web on the trunks of trees that are infested with scale insects which they devour, finally forming an elongate cocoon attached to the bark; in the orchard they destroy white louse on oranges, and San Jose scale on peach trees. Strathmopoda melanochra, a little brown moth, has the fore wings dull white with metallic reflections and darker markings; the wings are very finely fringed on the hind margins.
The Family Plutellidae contains one very destructive little pest in the Diamond-backed Cabbage Moth, Plutella cruciferarum; the slender green larvae gnaw holes in the leaves and pupate in net-like cocoons on the foliage. It has a world-wide range and is very common in Australia.
The Family Tineidae, containing the clothes moths, is defined by Meyrick (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1892) as the rough-headed Tineina, with the palpi strongly developed in front of the head, and the hind wings usually as broad as the fore wings, sometimes narrower but seldom broader. Larva with 16 legs, or legs wanting.
The Genus Xystmatodoma contains 29 species, of which X. guildingi is a typical form described by Scott in his “Australian Lepidoptera”; it is a slender-winged dull brown moth, the larva of which crawls about in a stout silken sack like that of an immature case moth, and feeds upon low scrub. Scardia australasialla is a handsome little moth, which is figured in Donovan’s “Insects of New Holland”; it measures about 1¼ inches across the wings; the fore pair are dull brown but so thickly covered with shining white to pale yellow spots that it looks very brilliant; the hind pair are brown fringed with long plumes. Blabophanes ethelella is about ¾ of an inch across the wings; the fore pair are dark brown finely spotted with white and some have a comparatively large white dot in the centre of each wing, the hind margin also edged with white; the hind pair light brown. The Genus Tinea is represented by a number of both native and introduced species. The common clothes moth, Tinea pellionella, is too well known to need description; it is world-wide in its range, and lays its eggs upon clothes on which the larvae feed and finally use particles to construct their cocoons. T. tapetzella feeds among furs and skins. Tineola biselliella is a third cosmopolitan species of clothes moth. Tinea fuscipunctella feeds upon dried animal matter, refuse and such like; it also is world wide in its range. Among our native species, T. nectaria is under ½ an inch across the wings; the fore pair have the basal two thirds silvery yellow with the tips black; the hind pair dull yellow darkest at the tips. Meyrick says that these larvae make cases out of eucalyptus leaves, but my specimens were bred out of blister-like excrescences or galls upon the leaves of a shrub in the Botanic Gardens Sydney. Thudaca obliquella, about 1 inch across the wings, is a beautiful little silvery white moth, with the fore wings deep yellow thickly marked with parallel and transverse bars of silvery white; the hind pair broad, silvery, lightly clouded, and fringed behind with long plumes.
The Epipyropidae comprise a small group of moths that have been raised to the rank of a family by Perkins (Bulletin I. part 2, “Leaf Hoppers and their Natural Enemies,” Hawaii 1905), though it would probably be more correct to place them as a sub-family of the Tineidae. Sharp (Cambridge Natural History: Insects part II.) places them in the Limacodidae. They are small black, grey or brown moths, with small eyes; no ocelli; the palpi wanting or very minute, and the mouth parts little developed. They have remarkable parasitic habits in the caterpillar state living upon the backs of different leaf hoppers (Homoptera) and feeding upon the waxy or sugary secretions discharged by their hosts. Perkins describes 7 new Australian species, which are placed in three genera, based on the neuration of the wings. Three species come from Cairns, N. Queensland, and four from the neighbourhood of Sydney. Heteropsyche melanochroma measures under ½ an inch across the outspread wings and is of a general black or fuscous colour with purple tints on the fore wings. Koebele records it as common about Sydney, parasitic upon a number of different Fulgorids and Jassids.
Rothschild (Novitates Zoologicae 1906) has named another species, Epipyrops doddi, after the well known collector, P. F. Dodd, who had worked out its life history in North Queensland.