the cut-worms do an immense amount of damage to pasturage and gardens.
These moths are of medium size with stout bodies; their fore wings
generally speaking are narrow, stiff, and triangular, with the broader
rounded hind ones folded beneath; the antennae are only slightly
toothed in the males of a few species, and the mouth is produced
into a tubular proboscis with which they can suck the nectar out of
the flowers. In colouration they vary from bright brown to black, a
few being marked with white or metallic tints; they are nocturnal in
their habits, resting under bark, rocks or other sheltered places, and
at night often flying into the lighted lamps. The larvae, which are
known as “cut-worms,” “plague caterpillars,” and “army worms,” are
usually elongate, dull brown, or greenish, naked caterpillars of a
uniform thickness with 8 pairs of legs. When full grown they pupate
underground, forming no regular cocoon, though a few groups form a
flimsy silken one attached to their food plant.
The world wide Genus _Agrotis_ contains a number of variable forms
whose larvae are typical “cut-worms,” hiding in the ground or under
rubbish during the day, and coming out at night to feed. The short
stout moths have the head scaly; the fore wings black to grey, the hind
pair always lighter coloured; the antennae of the males are slightly
pectinate.
[Illustration: =Fig. 128.=--The Bugong Moth, or
Plague-Cutworm.
_Agrotis infusa_ (Boisd.).]
The “Bugong Moth,” _Agrotis infusa_, has gone under many different
specific names, and is quite an historical insect. It is a dark brown
moth, the fore wings marked with two parallel black lines, two dull
grey spots in the centre and wavy lines at the extremities; the hind
pair are light brown. These moths frequently appear in immense swarms,
and take their popular name from the Bugong Mountains among the rocks
of which they used to congregate in millions; they formed an important
food supply to the natives who used to sweep them off into their bags,
and after denuding them of their wings and scales over a small fire,
pound the bodies (at this time distended with eggs) into a dough or
paste. Dr. Bennett has given an interesting account of this in his
“Naturalist in Australia.” A rather curious error regarding this
Bugong Moth has crept into popular natural history books. In the Rev.
J. G. Wood’s “Insects Abroad,” he figures and describes a butterfly,
_Euploea hamata_, as the Bugong Moth; Aflalo in his “Natural History of
Australia” makes the same statement, and in a recent magazine article
on “Insects as Food” Theodore Wood repeats the same error.
Scott (Trans. Ent. Soc. N.S.W. 1867) gives an account of an appearance
of Bugong Moths in Sydney, when they were so numerous one Sunday
morning at North Shore that the service at St. Thomas’ Church could
not be held, and some observant persons counted 80,000 moths on the
windows. They have appeared at irregular intervals about Sydney and the
coastal districts in similar swarms, the last time being in 1905.
_Agrotis breviuscula_ is a smaller variable species ranging from
reddish brown to grey; the antennae are long; the fore wings have a
dark spot of irregular form in the centre, a few fine dots along the
edge, and a fine line round the tips; the hind wings are light brown.
_Agrotis ypsilon_ is not unlike the “Bugong Moth” and by some writers
is considered only a large variety, but it has a distinct mark like the
Greek letter e in the centre of the fore wings, the tips finely marbled
with wavy lines; and the light brown hind wings give a metallic sheen.
[Illustration: =Figs. 129= and =130=.--The
Climbing-Cutworm or American Army-worm.
129. _Leucania unipuncta_ (Horvath).
130. _Leucania unipuncta_, Larva.]
_Leucania unipuncta_ is one of the most destructive caterpillars found
in North America, where it is known as the “Army worm,” devouring
crops, grass, and garden stuff. Though the moth has been known for
many years in Australia it was not until 1903–4 that it was observed as
a plague caterpillar, attacking crops and grass nearly all over Eastern
Australia. The caterpillars, 1¼ inches long, are dull olive green with
light stripes down the back and sides. The moth measures 1½ inches
across the wings, which are of a uniform reddish fawn colour finely
speckled with little black scales.
The “Boll Worm,” or “Maize Moth,” _Heliothis armigera_, is another
cosmopolitan cut-worm which does a great deal of damage to cotton bolls
and maize; is common in the pea crops, and also damages tomatoes. The
moth measures about 1 inch across the wings; the fore pair are greyish
yellow with purplish-brown tints, but are very variable in colouration;
the hind wings are silvery grey with the apical portions dark brown;
the latter pair are constant in their markings.
The handsome little moths belonging to the Genus _Thalpochares_ are
remarkable for their curious plump naked larvae, which feed upon
different kinds of scale insects, at the same time covering themselves
with a portable cocoon composed of fragments of the coccids matted
together with silken strands. _Thalpochares coccophaga_ is a pretty
creamy winged moth with the basal portion shaded with brown and reddish
tints, and measures about ¾ of an inch across the wings. The larvae
feed upon a number of different insects native to the bush, and have
lately been of some economic value in destroying olive scale (_Lecanium
oleae_) in the orchards. Several other species have been described with
identical habits. _Earias fabia_ is a pest of the cotton plant; I have
bred numbers obtained in the cotton bolls growing at the Hawkesbury
College, N.S.W.; the larva is a slender dull green grub, which when
full grown forms a stout, oval, light brown, felted cocoon attached to
the dead foliage. The moth is slightly over one inch across the wings,
which are of a uniform pale yellow colour, each with a greenish bar
in the centre; the hind pair are lighter. In forming such a well-made
cocoon this moth seems out of place in the Noctuids; and Lower says in
his Catalogue, “that some writers refer this moth to the BOMBYCINA.”
Westwood and Swinhoe place it in the TORTRICIDAE.
The Genus _Hadena_ contains a number of Australian species rather more
abundant in Tasmania than the mainland; it is another cosmopolitan
group, found in Europe and America. _Hadena expulsa_, slightly over
1 inch across the wings, has the fore pair of a general grey tint,
mottled with brown; the hind pair are darkest towards the apex and are
fringed on the margin with fine white down.
[Illustration: =Fig. 131.=--The Grey-Cutworm Moth.
_Mamestra ewingii_ (Westw.).]
_Mamestra ewingii_ is typical of another large world wide genus. Its
larvae are among our most destructive cut-worms to crops and grass: it
is a pale slate-coloured moth, marked with short parallel lines of a
darker tint on the tips of the wings. _Spodoptera exempta_ was figured
in the Agricultural Gazette 1898 under the name of _Phlegetona carbo_.
It is one of our climbing cut-worms, and in that year the caterpillars
swarmed all over the Camden and South Coast districts of N.S. Wales.
They are very active grubs, olive green to almost black in colour,
striped on the sides with fine yellow lines; and when full grown
measure 1½ inches in length. The moth is under 1½ inches across the
wings; is of a general dark brown tint, indistinctly mottled all over
the fore wings with yellowish or sometimes silvery grey scales; the
hind wings are silvery and semitransparent.
_Prodenia littoralis_ is a handsome moth of about the same dimensions
as the last; the fore wings are dark brown finely striped and pencilled
with grey lines; the hind pair pearly white. The moth often lays her
eggs upon the foliage of apple and other trees; the young on hatching
out feed upon the foliage but afterwards make their way to the ground.
_Plusia verticillata_ is a species that feeds upon the foliage of
peas, beans, and potatoes; the slender pale green grub differs from
the typical “cut-worm” in moving about like a “looper,” and when full
grown pupates in a flimsy silken cocoon it spins upon the under surface
of the leaf. The moth, measuring 1½ inches across the wings, has the
fore pair brown tinted with mauve, marbled with a coppery tint, and
with two elongate oval spots of silvery white scales in the centre of
each, and fine lines behind; the hind wings are dark brown fringed with
grey down. _Plusia argentifera_ is a smaller form with a silvery mark
in the centre of each fore wing. The handsome dark brown caterpillar
of _Calogramma festiva_, which was figured by Donovan in his “Insects
of New Holland,” feeds upon the foliage of the Crinea lilies; they
are sometimes plentiful in the Botanic Gardens. This moth measures
1½ inches across the wings, and is of a uniform pale creamy-yellow
colour, thickly mottled on the base of the wings with red and black.
We now come to a curious allied group, the OPHIDERINAE, the members of
which are known as the “Orange-piercing moths”; they are large handsome
insects with the head and thorax thickly clothed with scales forming a
regular crest, and furnished with a proboscis which, pointed and barbed
at the tip, enables them to thrust it through the rind of oranges and
other ripe fruit and suck up the juice. Tryon has figured and written
an interesting account of these moths in the Queensland Agricultural
Journal Vol. ii. 1898.
[Illustration: =Fig. 132.=--Life History of the Bean
Moth, _Plusia verticillata_ (Guérin).
Showing the half looper form of the caterpillar, and the
loose silken cocoon of the pupa.]
_Maenas salaminia_ measures 3½ inches across the wings; the fore pair
are bright olive green, with a broad stripe of creamy white along the
anterior margins; the hind wings are an orange yellow colour, and
each with the margin and centre black. The thorax is bright olive
green, and the abdomen of an orange yellow colour. It ranges from the
northern parts of New South Wales to North Queensland, and at Cairns
I used to capture them at night with a net and bull’s-eye lantern, as
they hovered round bunches of ripe bananas hanging under the house.
_Othreis fullonica_, slightly larger than the last, has the fore wings
mottled with grey and brown among the olive green; the body and hind
wings are of the same rich orange colour as the former species, with
smaller black markings on the hind margins. This species ranges from
Queensland to Africa, India, Ceylon, and the New Hebrides. _Argadesa
materna_ is about the same size, but has lighter coloured fore wings,
and further distinguished by a much smaller black spot in the centre
of each hind wing. The caterpillars of these moths are large handsome
cylindrical creatures with the body humped up at the eleventh segment,
and two large spots like eyes on either side of the body. They feed
upon several different creepers in the scrub.
The EREBIDAE contains a number of large dark brown moths often
curiously mottled with zig-zag lines running round the wings, and a
dull coloured eye-spot in the centre of each fore wing. Several species
are common in Australia; they often come into the house at night and
will be found resting on the ceiling in the morning. One of the largest
moths known, the great owl moth of Brazil, measuring a foot across
the wings, belongs to this family. _Dasypodia selenophora_ measures 3
inches across the wings, and is of a uniform pale chocolate brown tint;
the outer margins of the wings are finely crenulated and spotted with
white; the centre of each fore wing has a large irregular eye-spot of
black, mauve and orange tints. It ranges from Australia to Tasmania
and New Zealand. _D. cymatoides_, about the same size, is of a much
darker brown colour, with less distinct eye-spots, a black transverse
band behind each white one, and the whole of the inner surface thickly
covered with zig-zag wavy lines. This species ranges from Sydney to
North Queensland.
_Sericea spectans_ is a slightly larger moth not unlike the last, but a
little darker, with the transverse band thicker and more blurred, and
with an eye-spot on each hind as well as each fore wing.
[Illustration: Plate XXVI.--LEPIDOPTERA.
Family Ophiderinae.
1. _Moenas (Ophideres) salaminia_ (Fabr.).
2. _Othreis fullonica_ (Linn.). ♂.
4. _Othreis fullonica_ (Linn.). ♀.
Family NOCTUINA.
3. _Sericea spectans_ (Guérin).
(Original photo. Burton.)]
[Illustration: _Plate XXVI.--LEPIDOPTERA._]
Family 15. Leaf Rollers.
PYRALIDAE.
These moths are a very interesting division of the smaller lepidoptera
on account of the habits of their larvae, which live upon the foliage
of different plants in small communities, matting and drawing the
leaves together with silken strands and feeding under the shelter thus
constructed; when ready to pupate they usually curl the remains of
one of the half-devoured leaves into a flimsy cocoon with a little
silk, from which the moth emerges later on in the season.
The majority of these moths are small and unattractive; at the same
time we have some brightly green and yellow tinted species of medium
size. The caterpillars are slender naked larvae, often green marked
with black spots and a few scattered hairs; they are very active and
drop to the ground whenever disturbed.
These moths are easily separated by specialists from the preceding
groups by the structure of the nervures of the hind wings. Several
specialists have undertaken their classification: Meyrick (Trans. Ent.
Soc. London 1890) placed them as a group containing 8 families: Ragonet
(Ann. Ent. Soc. France 1890), while restricting them to 2 families,
made 17 smaller divisions which he called tribes: Lower, who partly
follows Meyrick, gives 13 families in his “Catalogue”; I simply deal
with them here as a group, describing a number of typical forms with
their life histories.
[Illustration: =Fig. 133.=--The Common Flour Moth.
_Asopia farinalis_ (Linn.).]
_Margarodes vertonalis_ is a handsome bright green moth, with the
margins of the outer edges of both pairs of wings marked with dark
reddish brown; it measures about 1½ inches across the wings. The
caterpillars, about an inch in length, are bright green mottled with
black; the head shining reddish brown. My specimens were collected in
the Botanical Gardens, Sydney, at the end of January; they were matting
the tips of the branches of one of the ornamental shrubs (_Ochrosia
moorei_) into irregular rounded masses. They pupated a week later and
emerged before the end of the month.
_Sceliodes cordalis_, measuring slightly over 1 inch across the wings,
is of a uniform creamy tint; the whole of the fore wings are mottled
with light brown, the tips blotched with the same colour; and the hind
pair more spotted; my specimens were bred from the foliage of the egg
plant.
_Asopia farinalis_ is the well known “meal moth” common, in most parts
of the world; the caterpillars feed upon all kinds of corn, bran,
pollard, and flour; it mats its food particles together with a silken
web into a tube in which it hides. The moth is often found upon the
walls of feed houses, mills, &c., and sometimes comes into the light at
night. It measures 1 inch across the wings, and has a ground colour of
yellow buff to dull greyish yellow, blotched with a darker tint at the
base and tip, the latter marbled with grey; the hind wings are silvery.
_Zinckenia recurvalis_ is a common little moth about Sydney; it is
under 1 inch across the wings, which are of a dark brown tint, with a
white bar traversing the centre of each wing, and with a second white
spot on each fore wing towards the tip. The caterpillars are sometimes
found destructive to salt-bush hedges about Sydney by stripping off the
foliage and causing the bushes to die back.
[Illustration: =Fig. 134.=--_Notarcha clytalis_
(Walker).
The Kurrajong Leaf Roller.]
_Notarcha clytalis_ is a bright yellow moth with an irregular wavy line
of black crossing the outer portions of the wings, and another shorter
band near the base of each fore wing. The gregarious larvae are green
spotted with black; they roll the leaves on the terminal branches of
the Kurrajong into regular slender masses up to a foot or more in
length, in which they finally pupate. It has a wide range over the
country, rendering these handsome trees very unsightly when numerous.
The larvae of _Godara comalis_ is a greenish yellow caterpillar barred
with lighter yellow at the back of each segment, and lightly clothed
with long brown hairs; it feeds upon the leaves of the horse radish and
turnip. The moth measures 1 inch across the wings; the fore pair are
buff irregularly mottled with dark brown; the hind wings of a uniform
silvery white with a brown patch at the apical margin.
[Illustration: =Fig. 135.=--Nest of _Notarcha
clytalis_ (Walker).
Showing how the caterpillars roll up the foliage.]
[Illustration: =Fig. 136.=--_Godara comalis_
(Guérin).
The caterpillar of which webs the leaves of the horseradish.
(“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)]
[Illustration: =Fig. 137.=--_Cognogethes
punctiferalis_ (Guérin).
The Northern Peach Moth, with damaged peach.]
_Mecyna polygonalis_ defoliates the tree lucerne (_Citysus prolifera_);
I have also bred it from broom bushes in gardens at Armidale, N.S.W.,
and on a native bush (_Templetonia_) in the western plains, so that
it has a wide range: Mr. Lyell tells me it is very destructive to the
foliage of willows in some parts of Victoria. The caterpillars are
slender light green creatures spotted with black and white shaded with
yellow on the sides; when full grown they spin a loose silken cocoon.
The moth is slightly under 1½ inches across the wings; the fore pair
are light brown, and the hind pair each blackish brown round the outer
portion and bright yellow in the centre. The two introduced bee moths,
_Achraea grisella_ and _Galleria melonella_, belong to a division of
this family: the moths lay their eggs about the hive, the grubs crawl
in and feed upon the wax which they mat together with silken web, and
if overlooked they destroy the whole of the hive; in the days of the
old-fashioned hives they were a great source of trouble to bee-keepers,
but now with well constructed bar-hives they are easily checked. The
first named is of a uniform brown colour with the fore wings rounded;
the second has the wings arcuate behind and irregularly mottled.
_Aphomia latro_ measures about 1½ inches across its slender somewhat
pointed fore wings; is of a general buff colour shot with fine black
spots, and divided down the centre of the fore wings with a broad dull
white parallel stripe; the hind wings silvery grey. The larvae live
in small communities feeding upon and matting together the scape of
the flower stalk of the grass trees, in which they pupate within an
elongate white silken cocoon.
[Illustration: =Fig. 138.=--_Mecyna polygonalis_
(Hubner).
The Native Broom Bush Moth.]
The Peach Moth, _Conogethes punctiferalis_, is a bright yellow moth
thickly mottled with black spots. The larvae attack peaches when
ripening, eating and webbing the surface and pupating on the side of
the stone. It is common in the northern districts of N.S.W.
The “Mediterranean Flour Moth,” _Ephestia kuhniella_, though not an
Australian moth, is worthy of note, for it is widely distributed over
the country, and causes a lot of annoyance by the bad habits of its
larvae of webbing the flour into masses with its silken strands.
Another cosmopolitan moth, _Plodia interpunctella_, is known in America
as the “Indian Meal Moth,” though it feeds upon all kinds of dried
foods; it is a much smaller moth of a general brown tint, the apical
portion of the wings much darker than the basal part. This moth also is
very common in Australia.
Family 16. Bell Moths.
TORTRICIDAE.
These moths have slender bodies; short generally broad fore wings,
truncate at the extremities; the hind pair also broad; and when they
are at rest during the day time their wings are folded flat down. The
costal margins of the fore wings are much rounded when the wings are
folded, giving a general bell shaped form; from which these moths take
their popular name. They are sometimes called “leaf twisters” or “leaf
rollers,” but differ from the true gregarious leaf roller caterpillars
in seldom matting a number of the leaves together. The caterpillars
also feed upon seeds.
[Illustration: =Fig. 139.=--_Cacaecia postvittana_
(Walker).
The light-brown Apple Moth.]
The members of the Genus _Cacaecia_ are interesting insects because
several have been found attacking fruit in orchards: _C. postvittana_,
was recorded by Olliff gnawing in apples like a codlin moth. It
measures ¾ of an inch across the wings; is of a general dull yellow
marked with brown, but its colour and markings are very variable. It
has a wide range over Tasmania and the eastern coast of the mainland
into Queensland; and about Sydney the caterpillars feed upon half a
dozen different common native shrubs. French in his Handbook of the
Destructive Insects of Victoria Pt. I. 1891 has named and figured
one, _C. responsana_, the “Light Brown Apple Moth,” as an apple pest
in Victoria; this is probably _C. postvittana_. _C. Australasiae_ is
a larger species of a dark brown colour; the fore wings are lightly
mottled or marbled. _C. lythrodana_ is a smaller, similar coloured
moth, but the colouration is finer. _Paramorpha aquilina_ is a tiny,
creamy-grey moth not quite ½ an inch across the wings: in its native
state it frequents damp or marshy ground, flying low among the herbage.
The larva is a short, pale green grub that, in several of the orange
growing districts, attacks the ripening oranges; boring through the
skin, it feeds upon the pith between the rind and flesh, where it
finally pupates and causes the orange to turn yellow and drop off.
[Illustration: =Fig. 140.=-_Paramorpha aquilina_
(Meyrick).
The Orange-skin Borer.]
[Illustration: =Fig. 141.=--Life history of the Lucerne
Leaf Roller, _Tortrix glaphyriana_ (Meyrick).]
The Lucerne Moth, _Tortrix glaphyriana_, is a small, dark yellow moth
about ½ an inch across the wings; the fore pair are light buff with
a silvery tint, blotched with irregular patches of dark brown. The
caterpillars are dark green with scattered white hairs on the segments;
they are a regular pest in lucerne paddocks in the Hunter River
district, N.S. Wales, feeding upon the lucerne tops and drawing them
together with silken threads. _Arotrophora ombrodelta_ is a handsome
little moth which I bred out of the seed pods of _Acacia farnesiana_
growing near Lismore, N.S.W.; the yellowish brown caterpillar has a
pink stripe down the back, and each segment is spotted with green; they
devour the seeds and then pupate inside the pod close to the hole,
through which the pupa works its head just before the moth is ready to
emerge; the anal segments being ringed with fine spines enable it to
screw right out of the hard pod, so that the moth is not damaged. The
moth, under 1 inch across the wings, has the fore pair chocolate brown,
mottled and darkest at the tips; the hind pair are brown. Meyrick
says that the larva of another species feeds enclosed in a short,
stiff, silken tube among the leaves of _Lomantia silarfolia_; and a
third feeds in the flower cone of our common honeysuckle (_Banksia
serrata_). The Codlin Moth, _Carpocapsa pomonella_, the world-wide pest
to apple growers, is found in most parts of Australia; but though the
reddish tinted caterpillar is universally known, there are a great many
orchardists who do not know the moth, though it is easily recognised
from all other species by the copper coloured blotch on the apical
portion of the fore-wings.
[Illustration: =Fig. 142.=--_Cryptophaga
unipunctata_ (Donovan).
The Cherry-stem Borer, showing the larva.]