(erroneously: Teara edwardsi)
Mistletoe Brown-Tail Moth
LYMANTRIIDAE
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(Photo: courtesy of Halina Steele, Canberra)
Don Herbison-Evans (
donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley
(Photo: courtesy of Halina Steele, Canberra)
The Caterpillars of this species are grey, often with rusty red markings, and with white patches on the abdominal segments. They have white lateral hairs along each side. There are two pairs of knobs on the back of the first two and last abdominal segments. The penultimate pair of abdominal segments each have a dorsal gland.
The caterpillars feed on:
When the larvae run out of food, they wander off, often invading dwellings. This is not good, as some people are allergic to the hairs from these Caterpillars, giving them Urticaria, even the windblown hairs from the discarded skins.
The adult moth is a plain orange-brown, with a faint pale spot near the middle of each forewing. The moth has prominent pair of black eyes, and a dark abdomen with a yellow tuft on the tip. The moth has a wingspan of about 5 cms.
The species occurs over the whole south-east quarter of Australia.
Further reading :
David Carter,
Butterflies and Moths,
Collins Eyewitness Handbooks, Sydney 1992, p. 269.
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pp. 69, 429.
Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths,
CSIRO Publishing, 2007, pp. 176, 179.
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(updated 13 November 2010)