Clouded Footman
Adult Female, profile
Ellura
Clouded Footman
Adult Female with Eggs
 
                      
Clouded Footman (Anestia ombrophanes)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera)
Family: Tiger Moth (:Noctuoidea Erebidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Clouded Footman (Anestia ombrophanes)
This Photo:     Adult Female, anterior

Thank you Prof Victor W Fazio III†, Dee Petersen & Dion Maple for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills, the Flinders Ranges, Coastal Areas and elsewhere
Flightless Female is ~5mm long, 0mm wingspan. Males have a wingspan ~25mm.
Males are While the male moth is rather drab with his wings closed, the interest starts to peak when you see his wings open; such an orange flash. The caterpillars feed on lichen. Then to discover that both male & female caterpillars make their cocoon out of their own hair. They then pupate inside this and their gender can be determined at this early stage. The female is an incredible array of pink, black & white AND she doesn't have any wings when she emerges. She waits for a male to fly to her. They mate and then she deposits her eggs on the hairs of her cocoon. She then spends the rest of her short life (~2 weeks) tending to her eggs. What an interesting species!
A more technical term for wingless insects is "Apterous". It's hard to know if shes wingless, or has reduced wings, which would make her "Brachypterous".

Copyright © 2017-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 11-May-2017
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.