Translate

Saturday 4 October 2014

Spring Moths

It is spring in the Southern Hemisphere. The days are getting longer and the nighttime temperatures are higher than they have been. But it is dry in the north. Kuranda rainfall during August was 55 mm and for all of September only 4.00 mm.

Nevertheless, it does not seem to affect moth activity. Warmer nights have yielded a great variety of species that were not present just a couple of weeks ago. Here is a very small sample.

Thanks to Ted Edwards, Ian McMillan and Buck Richardson and Donald Hobern for aid with the identifications. Any errors are those of the ageing yours truly.

For an idea of scale, the squares of the light sheets measure approximately 1 mm across.
Drepanidae; Hypsidia erythropalis

 Xylorictidae; Cryptophasa flavolineata
 Erebidae; Ctenuchinae; Ceryx guttulosa 
 Crambidae; Glyphodes margaritaria
Crambidae; Pyraustinae Omiodes chrysampyx
 Saturniidae; Saturniinae; Coscinocera hercules- Male The Hercules Moth
  Saturniidae; Saturniinae; Coscinocera hercules- Male The Hercules Moth
 Erebidae; Lithosiinae; Termessa ANIC sp. 2
 Erebidae; Lithosiinae; Asura polyspila
Erebidae; Lithosiinae; Genus ?
  Crambidae; Pyraustinae; Proedema  inscisalis
Notodontinae; Syntympistis chloropa
Oecophoridae; Oecophorinae Garrha sp. ANIC 13
Oecophoridae; Oecophorinae Lophopepla triselena
Saturniidae; Saturniinae Opodiphthera fervida
 Pyralidae; Phycitinae genus ?
 Pyralidae; Endotrichinae Endotricha sp
 Crambidae; Pyraustinae Palpita unionalis
 Xylorictidae; Genus ?
 Xylorictidae Xyloricta sp
Cosmopterygidae; Trachydora sp
Erebidae; Hypeninae Meyrickiella torquesaria 
 Oecophoridae; Stathmopodinae Zatrichodes sp
 Crambidae; Pyraustinae Pleurotypa symphonodes
 Adelidae; Nemophora panaeola
  Adelidae; Nemophora panaeola
 Crambidae; Acentropinae Megarosticha sp
 Geometridae; Geometrinae Agathia distributa 
  Geometridae; Geometrinae Gelasma orthodesma
 Geometridae; Geometrinae Metallochlora venusta
 Crambidae; Crambinae Genus?
 Batrachedridae Batrachedra sp
 Geometridae; Ennominae Milionia queenslandica
 Gelechiidae undescribed genus
 Aganaidae; Agape chloropa
 Erebidae; Arctiinae; Amerila crokeri
 Plutellidae; Plutella ?xylostella-The Cabbage Moth
This moth is a garden pest of many vegetables of the cabbage family. As far as I know, this is the first record from my home in the rainforest. Many people attempt to grow veggies and this must be the source of this species which may be introduced in Australia. There is some confusion as to the identity of the species and, therefore, the precise application of the species' name.

Geometridae; Oenochrominae Oenochroma quadrigramma

2 comments:

Nick Morgan said...

Wow, you have some amazing moths there. So much more colourful than all of the little brown jobs that all look the same that we get here!!

Mr. Smiley said...

Thanks Nick. where is here?
DR