These Caterpillars are brown with a pale band along each side and a dark mark on the back of each abdominal segment. The body has short sparse black hairs. The head has black speckles. The caterpillars feed on a wide variety of low-growing dicotyledonous herbs.

(Photo: copyright Cathy Young)

The adult moths are buff coloured with a pattern of brown spots and speckles, including a larger elliptical outline near the center of each forewing. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

eggs, magnified
(Photo: copyright Cathy Young)

The eggs are laid unattached, and are barrel-shaped with microscopic ridges. Their diameter is about 0.7 mm. Initially they are white, later developing red spots, then turning grey as hatching approaches.

The species has been found at high altitude (above 1000 metres) in Victoria and Tasmania.

Further reading :

Peter B. McQuillan,
The Tasmanian Geometrid Moths Associated with the Genus Amelora auctorum (Lepidoptera : Geometridae : Ennomina) ,
Invertebrate Taxonomy, Volume 10, Number 3, 1996, pp. 433-506.

Catherine J. Young,
Characterisation of the Australian Nacophorini and a Phylogeny for the Geometridae from Molecular and Morphological Data, Ph.D. thesis, University of Tasmania, 2003.

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