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

Python Profile

It is spring and the snakes are beginning to show themselves.

The other night while wandering in the rainforest  I almost stepped on this large python. It measured about 2.5 m in length and seemed unperturbed so I got up and close!

At the time I did not notice the tick just beyond the head. It appears that the snake is getting ready to shed its skin. What happens to the attached ticks when this happens? Do they drop off, or does the skin just fracture around them? Someone will know.

The tick is the grey disk. It has not been there for long as it appears to not have fed very much, otherwise it would be balloon-like.

A Most Primitive Moth

Meet Sabatinca sterops, one of the world's most primitive moths. Fossils of related species in the family Micropterygidae have been found in amber in Lebanon that date back at least 120 million years.

But why is it considered "primitive". Well, it bears the following combination of characteristics: chewing mouthparts (most Lepidoptera have sucking mouthparts or no mouthparts at all as adults); raised hair-scales and the forewings and hind wings are similar in shape and venation. These are considered basal features in the Lepidoptera.

Nine Australian micropterigid species are known. Most occur in eastern rainforests including Tasmania. Several species are purplish or with dark bands and are of similar size. All are presently included in the genus Sabatinca but have been divided into two groups. One, "The Australian Group", includes the "golden species" of which S. sterops is a member.

We encountered large numbers of this moth recently on the lower slopes of Mt Lewis (ca. 700 m), Queensland. They were most active dusk and shortly thereafter. Mt Lewis is covered by rainforest and it is incredibly dry at this time of the year. Some saplings are wilting because of the lack of moisture. Larger trees are dropping leaves. the undergrowth of annuals is mostly dead. So it was surprising to see this small moth flying in large numbers in the undergrowth.

S. sterops measures only 2.5 mm from head to tip of wings. The adults are said to visit flowers where they feed on pollen. Little is known of the whereabouts of the larvae of many species. Some have been found in rotting logs. It is hard to imagine the tiny caterpillars surviving in the dry soil of the rainforest. They may be associated with liverworts or other primitive plants present on branches or rocks.

S. sterops is known from specimens taken from Cooktown to Mission Beach, Queensland. With the tens of specimens we found at our site on Mt Lewis, there must be millions of the moths spread over its geographic range.


Literature
Zborowski, P., Edwards, T. 2007. A Guide to the Australian Moths. CSIRO Publishing, 214 pp. Collingwood, Vic.

A Small Mystery Solved

By the way, Spring is springing and it is good to see some regulars back in the blog business (see Snail's blog noted to the left of this offering).

A trip out Dimbulah way seemed slightly less than successful the other night until a I took a closer look at three tiny black and white cockroaches that appeared at the light sheet.

It seems they are the second known representatives of what was described as Ectoneura hanitschi (Burmeister). The type was photographed and appears on p. 250 of the cockroach guide. It is a small species measuring only about 5 mm it was attracted to Blacklight on a cool and windy night.

This lovely photo by Buck Richardson does not portray the dry, dusty and rather miserable habitat of the foreground. The light sheets were positioned not far from this "idyllic" setting. Trees included several eucalypts, Acacia, Grevillea and several small shrubs. The understory was largely grass, Speargrass, Heteropogon contortus, and Kangaroo Grass, Themeda. There were termite mounds close by and these may harbour this cockroach. But with 3 specimens showing up at light, the cockroaches could spend the day under loose bark or in leaf litter or elsewhere, who knows?

A few words about "hanitschi". This species was described from Burnside, Northern Territory. This locality is hundreds of kilometres from the Dimbulah site. Burnside is probably in the vicinity of what is now Marrakai, NT. We are a bit unsure of the precise location at this point. The original specimen was collected by Edward Handschin many years ago and described by Princis in 1965 as a "replacement" name for a taxon described by Richard Hanitsch in 1934.

The Burnside habitat is probably ecologically similar to the site near Dimbulah. In fact, several katydids reflect a broad distribution across the Top End of Australia. They include Conocephalus upoluensis (Karny), Nicsara bifasciata (Redtenbacher) and Chlorobalius leucoviridis Tepper just to name a few. So it is not entirely surprising to find an insect from two such widely separated localities. It seems quite possible that this cockroach will be found at locales between the two places should someone care to look.

Based on the specimens found near Dimbulah, this cockroach is misplaced in the genus Ectoneura. It is more appropriately ascribed to the related genus Choristima based on the presence of a single apical spine on the fore femur and the minute punctures on the pronotum. Chortistimas are typically more robust than most Ectoneura cockroaches.

Seems like an unduly amount of verbiage for a few little cockroaches. But there is a story for all creatures large and small!

Literature
Rentz, D. 2014. A Guide to the Cockroaches of Australia. CSIRO Publishing 318 pp.

Coremata

Coremata, including Hair Pencils, is a phenomenon associated with Lepidoptera. They are signalling structures produced by males that are seeking females. They have been proven to transmit pheromones that act as aphrodisiacs and even tranquillisers to females. Further they may act as repellents to rival males.

I have documented this situation before in this blog. The hairs protruding from the abdomen of Syntorarcha iriastis Meyrick, the sound-producing moth, are the Hair Pencils.

Moth of the family Arctiidae seem to be the champions when it comes to the ultimate in bizarre development of Coremata and Hair Pencils. I have seen the phenomena only twice, once on a fieldtrip in the 60's with the late Don MacNeill in California and the other just a few days ago in th Daintree region of far north Queensland.

Here we see a relatively common tropical moth, Creatonotos gangis (Linnaeus). This male has the portion of his abdomen extruded displaying the Coremata and the Hair Pencils. The tubes, the Coremata, are inflated by blood pressure and the hairs transmit the pheromones. The moth was probably in the early stages of this "broadcast" since the last few hairs have not been separated.

I have seen many individuals of this moth at night but have never seen it with this display. I was very fortunate to have had my camera handy and not to have stumbled or moved the twig where the male was perched. Even the slightest disturbance would cause him to retract the Coremata.

Viewed from the side, structures are even more striking.

This moth was described by Linnaeus in 1763. What would he have thought if he had seen it in this juxtaposition?

Constant Cacophany

Ever since the end of May on nights when it is warm and wet, the rainforest pulses with what seems to be a continual din of cricket song.

The songster is a short-winged field cricket, Cephalogryllus species.

This is a pretty large cricket, measuring about 25 mm in length. They seem to be quite common but localised to some extent with small aggregations here and there.

They are subterranean.  Males sing from the burrow entrances after dark on nights when the humidity and temperature is to their liking. It seems that they are silent when the temperature drops to 14C. The short wings serve only to produce the song. They are too short for flight.

There are 14 described species all from the Australian tropics. This one is most likely C. tau Otte and Alexander, but the hind leg is quite different from that described for typical C. tau. So it may be undescrbed.

You can hear a recording of this species at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/naturenoises/10466004004/in/set-72157636917906914

Although the loud sounds coming from these crickets reminds one of a continuous calling tree cricket (Oecanthinae), the individual calls are just long trills followed by a pause. But they are not co-ordinated so the result to the ear is a continuous trill. They are highly ventriloquial and individuals are very difficult to pinpoint. Once this is successful, it is often a bit embarrassing that the calling male was so close and yet apparently "invisible".

The crickets use their heads to move soil to the surface when they are excavating, hence the origin of the generic name. I have not properly dug the burrows to reveal their structure. This is a tedious task as the burrows meander through a labyrinth of roots and stones. The few that I have dug produce only males. Several had last instar male nymphs.

This is a last instar male. Note the short, undeveloped first pair of wings, the tegmina.

The biology of these neat insects is still poorly known. They re said to drag dead leaves into their burrows. I have never seen an individual abroad at night. Baiting with an oatmeal trail has resulted in only a few cockroaches and beetles but none of these crickets. One would assume that the reason for the males' calling is to attract females. This would seem to necessitate females moving about on the surface of the ground but as noted above, females have not been found. I have checked the oatmeal at several times during the night.

It was noted in Otte and Alexander's treatise on the crickets of Australia that the excavated soil around the entrance to the burrows was peppered with cricket droppings. These can be seen as the black spots above. This may not be happenstance. Could the droppings have some attractive properties that aid in the procurement of females? On the other hand, they may have some repellant function to ward off enemies. Of course, at this point, this is just conjecture and there may be nothing associated with the droppings.

Cephalogryllus crickets seem to be very common and widespread. Similar loud calls are heard each night in the rainforest across the street from the Cairns Botanical Gardens and in the forest near the Gondwanaland section


Literature
Otte, D. Alexander, R. D. 1983. The Australian Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Monograph 22Pp. 1-477.

National Moth Weeks Approaches

Dear All:

Have had hard drive problems recently but things are getting back to "normal".  regret that I have lost all my blog mailing lists.

 Arctiidae: Scaphidriotis camptopleura

 Crambidae; Pyraustinae; Agrotera amethealis 

 Noctuidae; Catocalinae; Avatha discolor

Eupterotidae; Eupterotinae;  Cotana serratonota (female)

 Notodontidae; Thaumetopoeinae; Epicoma contristis

Cossidae; Zeuxerinae; Endoxyla mackeri 

 Cossidae; Zeuxerinae; Endoxyla mackeri 

 Crambidae; Acentropinae; Magarosticha sp

Hypertrophidae; Eupselia sp