Category: Hepialidae

Oxycanus australis.

Flight records for this Hepialid are from March until June, with May the main month, and right on cue, on a night with light rain, about a dozen came into the house lights. After photos the lights were extinguished to allow them to go about their business of putting the next generation into production. Australis is very similar to dirempta, but can be identified by the longer rami on the antennae, up to three times the width of the shaft. (MOV 6)

Female.

Males.

The larvae feed on the roots of acacias, five species of which are garden subjects. A search for empty pupa cases under the acacias revealed that the Snowy River Wattle, Acacia boormanii was the host, a rough count coming to twenty five.

Case beside exit hole.

Winter Moths #2

An early arrival at the light was this female Entometer fervens, (Lasiocampidae) MOV 1 shows no flight records in June and July so she must have been making up for lost time. She fluttered about on the concrete for some time and the first image shows that she scattered eggs.  At packing up time she was carefully placed on a nearby shrub.

Fluttering up the sheet.

Of interest was the second home record of Oxycanus australis (Hepialidae), a species that has not been encountered in all the many previous bush sessions. The longer antennae pectination visible in the images help to distinguish the species from Oxycanus dirempta where the rami are much shorter. Reference Moths of Victoria Volume 6.

Two Microdes have come in, Microdes squamulata (Larentiinae) first, June is noted as a lesser flight month.

The other, Microdes oriochares is described in Moths of Victoria Volume 3 as being of alpine and sub alpine distribution, with flight months December and January. In May 2013 records were made at home, and this June it has turned up again, interesting.