Sinister Moth - Pholodes sinistraria
Family Geometridae
This page contains information about Sinister Moths that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia. The moth is also known as Brown Loopers.
- Female, wingspan 50mm
- Male, wingspan 50mm
- Female, wingspan 50mm
- We found this moth (1st picture) in our backyard, resting on a pine tree. Notice its feathery antennae which indicate it is a male. The female moth is slightly different on wing patterns and a little larger in size.
- Young instars length 15mm
- When the caterpillars are young, they are dark green to black in colours with single white band between the segments. They become brown colour in later instars stages. They feed on different of garden plants and trees, includes gumtree and wattle leaves..
- When disturbed, the caterpillar do a Bungee-Jump to escape. The above photos were taken in Toohey Forest during early winter. The small caterpillar was moving on a Wattle tree.
- They are known as Inch Worms because their caterpillars apparently measuring off one inch at a time as they move.
- The caterpillar is a true looper, i.e., it has only two pairs of prolegs and moves forward in a looper style.
- Mature caterpillar, length 50mm
- Above pictures show a mature caterpillar. It was found on a plum tree in our backyard during early winter, May 2005. The caterpillar was brown in colour, along each side, there are the tiny white dots on each segment.
- After we kept the caterpillar for a few days, we noticed that the caterpillar started moving fast up and down in the container. We understood that the it was the time it becomes a pupa. We checked the reference information that Brown Looper pupates under soil. We put some soil in the container. The caterpillar quickly moved into the soil and disappeared. Few days later we checked that it turned into a brown pupa. Then nothing happen for a long time.......................
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- After six months later, Jan 2006, a female Sinister Moth came out from the pupa. We put the moth back into our backyard after taking the above photos.
- Reference:
- 1. Pholodes sinistraria (Guenee, 1857) - Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley, 2009
- 2. Moths
of Australia - I. F. B. Common, Melbourne University Press,
1990, p367, Fig36.3, 36.4.
