Sun Moth

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shoop
shoop's picture
Sun Moth

Really please to get some photos of this pretty moth the other day at Araluen Botanical Gardens in West Aust. Took me a few days to get a postitive ID but thanks to flickr and its Field Guide to butterflies and moths of Aust. group I managed to see another like it. smiley

White -banded Sun moth.

Woko
Woko's picture

Hi shoop. Do you know anything about this lovely creature's ecology - how it breeds, what plants it favours, its range etc?

Lachlan
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Wow, beautiful colours. Is the orange intended to warn predators, like with Monarch butterflies?

shoop
shoop's picture

Sorry guys ,I have no idea about this moth as I can't really seem to find much info on the net , it was hard enough trying to get an ID . I knew it had to be a moth as I have been trying to make myself familiar with what butterflies there are here in Perth. Searched the net and the closest I came too was the Graceful sun moth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBGi0FD-ac4 But with the photos of the moth I took having the clear white bands I had doubts that it could be the Graceful Sun moth. So I took a stab in the dark and looked through one of the groups I am in on flickr and BOOM there it was. ! Maybe one of you guys might have better luck than I at finding any info on this beautiful moth.

Kerry - Perth, Western Australia.

darinnightowl
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 yes I think your right  snoop it is a sun moth, because these are the only moths with a prominently clubbed antennae like butterflies

woko the larvae feed underground on the roots & rhizomes of grasses and sedges.

See it!  Hear it!

Mid-North Coast NSW

Annie W
Annie W's picture

Another beauty shoop!  Amazing fact about the larvae feeding - I always picture butterfly eggs on a leaf, with a caterpillar munching through same later - too many readings of the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar at school I think blushlaugh.  So many wonderful natrual world things to learn still!

West Coast Tasmania

Woko
Woko's picture

Thanks, Darin. Interesting information. Those grasses & sedges need conserving.

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