When it comes to lepidoptera, you have one lot of super models and two lots of poor cousins. To look at, that is. We all like butterflies, especially in spring and summer when they flit and float colourfully about their business. In Australia, there are 427 species of them.
The other two groups of insects belonging to the order lepidoptera are moths and skippers. Skippers are a small group of butterfly-like insects and fly during the day. Moths are prevalent at night, being attracted to the lights of streets and buildings. There are some colourful day-flying moths which may be seen flying about but are less commonly seen.
Moths might be less colourful and less visible, but there are far more of them. In Tasmania alone, we have about 1,200 identified and described moths and perhaps another 1,000 or more which have yet to be identified and described in the literature. Of the known moth species, three are listed on the Tasmanian threatened species list: the chevron looper moth (vulnerable), the saltmarsh looper moth (vulnerable) and the tunbridge looper moth (endangered).
There and more than 22,000 moth species identified in Australia to date, which is about 53 times more than butterfly species. In Tasmania, there are 39 known butterfly species compared to the more than 1,200 moth species, or 30 times more.
While many of the moths we have seen or heard of are quite drab, usually a brown or gray hue, there are some that are exquisitely coloured and patterned. As there are far too many moths to discuss, I will limit this article to some of the more interesting ones I’ve come across in Tasmania.
We have all heard of clothes moths (family Tineidae) as well as those species that feed on food stuffs and live in and around urban and residential settings. What many of us are unaware of is that there are many beautiful and extremely varied species of moths waiting to be discovered within our state and even in your backyard! There are some with a wing span as large as 17cm, and others with long and robust body shapes such as the wattle goat moth (Endoxyla lituratus).
At the other end of the other scale, there are moths with a wing span of 2-4mm and a length of 2-3mm, such as members of the Nepticulidae and Opostegidae families.
The beautiful and large helena gum moth (Opodiphthera helena) is quite easily spotted in woodlands and even around homes, with its beautiful eyespots serve as a warning to predators to scare them off. The large green caterpillar feeds on various eucalypt trees and develops into a pupa where it will remain in a cocoon from three weeks to two years, depending on climatic conditions.
Another large and relatively robust moth is the wattle goat moth or (Endoxyla lituratus), which is common around the state. It is a member of the Cossidae family and is in the same family as the witchetty grub (Endoxyla leucomochla), found on mainland Australia, and has traditionally been eaten by Australia’s First People as a good food source.
The largest moth in the world in fact is the giant wood moth, and resides in Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand and weighs up to 30 grams and can reach a length up to 25 centimetres.
The beautiful emerald moths, in the Geometridae family, are commonly green, hence the common name, and are often seen around backyards and in the bush. One very intricately patterned member is the lacy emerald (Eucyclodes insperata). They are usually not easily seen during the day due to their camouflage and most of these emerald moths are quite stunning. The males and females are sexually dimorphic, with different patterns.
The vulnerable and threatened chevron looper moth (Amelora acontistica) is also in the family Geometridae and is found only in the coastal areas of the South Arm Peninsula near Hobart.
The family which constitute the Geometridae, as I said earlier, may not be seen easily as their wings are usually outstretched against flat surfaces and trees and are very well camouflaged. Some are termed bark moths as the blend in very well with tree bark, fences and stone.
The Noctuid moths are a large family worldwide, and in Tasmania they are commonly spotted at night around house lights while their caterpillars are commonly found in the grass and gardens. The bogong moth (Agrotis infusa) is a member of this family and one of only a small number of migrating moths in Australia – bogongs generally migrate from southern Queensland and parts of NSW to the Australian Alps in southern NSW and Victoria, and to Tasmania. They are an important food source particularly for birds and mountain pygmy possums. Their numbers have been declining possibly due to climatic changes and other factors.
The family Oecophoridae contains relatively small, variously shaped species that can be extremely colourful and exquisitely patterned. The colours of moths and butterflies are expressed from their scales that can take different forms including hairlike and flat scale-like. Some can look soft and others and can be iridescent, silver or golden in colour. Two beautiful examples are Ocystola crystallina and Wingia lambertella.
The members of the Sphingidae family are streamlined and look and fly like a hummingbird. A common one in Tasmania is the Coprosoma hawk moth (Hippotion scrofa). They are fast, strong fliers, feeding on nectar in deep tubular type flowers.
A primitive moth that can be seen in summer and autumn in Tasmania, and which many of us would have encountered, belongs to the family Hepialidae. This is the quite large and striking ghost moth, sometimes called ghost swift moth, and sometimes called rain moth since it tends to hatch in autumn rains. An example is Abantiades latipennis. The larva feed on the roots of various eucalyptus roots and develop in vertical tunnels in the ground. The wing span ranges from 8-13cm, the larger being the females. They are frequently seen on the sides of houses, trees, cars and other places where they tend to face upwards on flat surfaces. They do not eat as adults and can lay hundreds of eggs while fling, the eggs simply falling to the ground. Members of the family Hepialidae live for a very short time, in many cases about one day, their main function being to mate. This primitive family arose more than 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
Moths are often no friend of the urban lawn. At the caterpillar or grub stage during spring and summer, the Tasmanian corbie grub, as we know it, larvae of the species Oncopera intricata, are voracious feeders on grass roots. They can damage lawns quickly. They build tunnels to the surface and emerge at night to move and feed. The moths are less frequently seen but are not overly attractive and the females carry hundreds of eggs, again just dropped on the ground and hatch amongst the vegetation. These are real agricultural pests in Tasmania.
Another interesting moth is the Psychidae, or bagworm family, of which members have caterpillars that build ornate homes out of twigs and other natural materials. The homes of these caterpillars have both ends open so the larva can get rid of waste (frass) in the rear and feed out of the front as they pull their home along. One very colouful member in Tasmania is Cebysa leucotelus. The male is able to fly while the female, which has long legs and whose wings do not expand properly, cannot fly, and has to walk everywhere.
The smallest moths in the state belong to the families Nepticulidae and Opostegidae. Both of these families have eye caps and their caterpillars are leaf and stem miners. Some are less than 1mm long. They look like a speck of dirt but move!
To date, there are more than 40 families, with more than 1,000 identified species, of moths in Tasmania, and I have highlighted just a few of them. It is enjoyable to take the time to appreciate these often-forgotten members of the order Lepidoptera as they express a huge variety of colours, shapes amongst all habitats which they occupy.
I have seen new species almost weekly, just in my backyard! Enjoy the smaller wonders of beauty within the state of Tasmania. Happy discovering!
Jim Duggan lives in Tasmania with his wife Sue. He was born in New York and holds a science degree in biology from the State University of New York. He worked in marine science with US Fisheries for nine years, until migrating to Australia in 1986, where he spent more than 30 years working in the pharmaceutical industry. He has been a keen wildlife and wildflower photographer for more than 40 years, and has a particular interest in photographing moths in Tasmania.
