Fallen Bark Looper - Gastrophora henricaria
Family Geometridae
This page contains information about Fallen Bark Lopper Moths that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Female wingspan 60mm
- The Fallen Bark Lopper caterpillars feed on gum tree leaves. On Feb 2004, we found the caterpillar on gum tree trunk near the ground in Wishart bushland during late summer. The caterpillar was brown in colour, hiding among the fallen barks and resembled one of them.
- Caterpillar 60mm
- From reference infromation the caterpillar feeds on Eucalyptus and Lophostemon.
- Pupa
- We took the caterpillar home. A day later the caterpillar turned into a pupa. It pupated at a bottom corner of the container. We waited to see what the moth would be. We waited.... and waited.....
- Male
- Over a year later on Apr 2005, we finally saw the moth. It was in the morning, the moth must have came out during the night.
- The moth was a male with bipectinate antennae. . It was pale brown in colour, with a black line across both forewings. There are some black dots on both side of the line. The hind wings are yellow-orange and black in colours. covered by forewings when rest. Underneath each forewing has a dark blotch on pale orange..
- We took a few pictures and let go the moth from our back yard.
- Female
- We found the female in Eucalypt forest a few times. They were found resting on tree trunk or on dry leaves.
- The moth has the stout-body and greyish-brown in colours. There are the black dots and lines patterns on bright yellow colour on hind wings, covered by forewings when rest.
- Reference:
- 1. Gastrophora henricaria Guenee, 1857 - Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley, 2008.
- 2. Moths
of Australia - I. F. B. Common, Melbourne University Press,
1990, p368, Pl.10.2, 26.12.
