Habits - Can't fly when cold. Rapid flyers from the "Swift moth" family. Fly at night in spring. Large flights of moths may be associated with rain.
Attracted to fire. Cooked moths eaten by aborigines.
Caterpillar -
Colour - Young - Dark with black head. Mature - Dark green brown or bluish. Prepupal - Pale greyish yellow.
Body - Summer stage-25mm long, 4mm wide. Autumn mature stage-up to 75mm long, 5-8mm wide.
Mouthparts - Chewing.
Antennae - Short. 3 segments.
Legs - 5 segments.
Head - Hard. Black.
Thorax - 10-11 segments. Spiracles on segments 1 to 8. Prolegs on segments 3-6 and 10.
Abdomen -
Habits - Herbivorous. Dig into soil to eat roots and emerge at night to eat shoots of grasses. Live under litter in summer and in silk lined vertical tunnels in autumn-winter.
Pupa -
One of the 'witchetty grubs' eaten by aborigines.
Biology:
Life Cycle:
Moth fly at night in spring and lay eggs on long grass. Eggs hatch and young caterpillars live under litter, feeding on roots over summer. At this stage they are long, thin and dark with black heads. In autumn they make vertical silk lined tunnels 100 - 200mm deep, grow quickly and feed voraciously. By August a non feeding, pale greyish yellow prepupal stage is reached which turns into the yellow and brown pupa. Moths emerge in September.
Habitats:
Origin and History:
Distribution:
Significance:
Caterpillar is a major pest of grasses. Tussocky grasses are worst affected. These are often chewed off at ground level.
Management and Control:
Inspect pastures carefully in summer by digging up the top 75mm of soil. Insecticides can be applied if caterpillars are present.
Related Species:
Oxycanus Grass Grub.
Similar Species:
References:
CSIRO. The Insects of Australia. Melbourne University Press. (1991) p818(f41.2Thorax), 820(f41.4Wing scales), 829, 839(f41.20wings), 841.
Goode, J. Insects of Australia. Angus and Robertson. p166(Larva photo).
Victorian Department of Agriculture. Insect Bulletins. p2.
Acknowledgments:
Collated by HerbiGuide. Phone 08 98444064 for more information.