female
(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The adult moth has a wingspan of about 6 cms. Its body is brown with a pink shading. The wings of the females are white with a pattern of brown lines.

male
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The forewings of the males are grey with a pattern of dark spots.

male, underside
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The species occurs over south-east Asia, including

and the north-east coast of Australia, including

drawing by Caspar Stoll, listed as Bombyx lunata,
Papillons exotiques, De uitlandsche kapellen, voorkomende in de drie waereld,
Volume 4 (1782), Plate CCCLXIX, Fig. C,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 19.1, p. 429.

Caspar Stoll,
Papillons exotiques,
in Pieter Cramer:
De uitlandsche kapellen, voorkomende in de drie waereld,
Volume 4 (1782), p. 154, and also Plate 369, Fig. C.

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian Lepidoptera

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(updated 5 September 2009)