Grass Day Moth
Larva2, Dashed Stripes on the Back
Grass Day Moth
Larva3&4, following each other
| Grass Day Moth Larva2, Dashed Stripes on the Back | | Grass Day Moth Larva3&4, following each other | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Owlet moth (:Noctuoidea Noctuidae Agaristinae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Grass Day Moth (Apina callisto) | ||||
| This Photo: | Larva3&4, head of 1 & tail of the other | ||||
| Other name: | Pasture Day Moth | ||||
Thank you Prof Victor W Fazio III† for confirming and Don Herbison-Evans for helping with the id of this species for us EXTRA - Photo Specific Information: This is an important sighting. These two were found together and followed each other around. I'm convinced from their behaviour they are the same species. It then proves the yellow stripes you see on every other specimen are not diagnostic. But the yellow spots on the tail & 3 red stripes above the face are. I also started using a rule & plastic insect boxes so this sighting also gives size & the ventral view General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere While larvae vary greatly in size, these are ~45-50mm long. The female is ~25mm long & ~55mm wingspan. Males have bipectinate antennae, will females are filiform. We Id'ed this species from the first photo of a Larva some time ago. Unfortunately we didn't keep records of this (still learning). But then we recently found the adult and was double checking on Don Herbison-Evan's site when we realised our larva looks different to the photo's on his site. We almost pulled the photos from our site, but thought we'd ask the man himself. Don is incredibly helpful and has a reputation of being a nice bloke. So he happily responded back with "Yes those look like the 3 prothorax stripes of an Apino callisto caterpillar. Of course the real test is to rear it to the adult moth and compare that with the holotype. Individual caterpillars do vary in colour, depending on instar, food, microclimate, genetics, etc (like humans do)." There's a big lesson here. We can't rely on Larva for a confident id. So in future we will always put a "?" against a species based on larva alone. Also, to re-iterate, identification from photos alone is fraught with difficulty & errors Notice the strange horn extrusion on it's face. | |||||
| |||||
| |||||