Senecio Moth
S6, Female, profile
Senecio Moth
S6, Female, antenna
| Senecio Moth S6, Female, profile | | Senecio Moth S6, Female, antenna | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Tiger Moth (:Noctuoidea Erebidae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Senecio Moth (Nyctemera amicus) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S6, Female, anterior🔎 | ||||
Thank you Don Herbison-Evans for identifying and Alan Melville for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills and elsewhere Adult females have a wingspan of ~44mm, and are ~15mm long. We haven't measured a male as yet. Larvae measured up to ~24mm long, generally black (or grey) with 3 orange longitudinal stripes. Young instars are black & white with no orange stripe, nor tufts (but still hairy). Intermediate instars have black & orange with areas of white patches which confuse the overall pattern. They are very hairy with 2 tufts of hair at the front which look like antennae or horns. You can see the hairs also have barbs/hairs on them. They feed on various varieties of senecio (hence their species common name) A day flying moth, the adult wings are mainly black with white/cream blotches making a diagonal, thick line on the wings. Their bodies are orange & black horizontally striped (leading to the "tiger moth" common name of the family). They have orange highlights behind the head and on the wing tips (cilia). Male & female adults can be differentiated by their antennae. While both are bipectinate (2 rows of filaments), the male pectinations (filaments) are longer and more spread than the females; as shown in the photo's. We have seen adults in Apr, May, Jun, Aug, Oct, Nov & Dec. | |||||
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