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Family Notodontidae
- This page contains pictures and information about moths and
caterpillars in subfamily Notodontinae that we found in
the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
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 - The Notodontinae caterpillar raises its head when disturbed.
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- Most
Caterpillars of Notodontinae will raise
their head and/or tail when disturbed, some will display the eye-spots. Some of them are hairy but some are
smooth with few spines. They are usually colourful and actively feeding during the day.
Most of them feed on leaves.
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Caterpillar displaying
eyespots
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- The
adult moths in this subfamily are from medium to large size, with stout body.
The head, thorax and legs are often covered with long hair. The fore wing is
usually elongated-triangular form. The hind wing is round and much shorter
than the fore wing. They rest their fore wings folded roof-wise above the
abdomen, with fore wings cover entirely the hind wings. They are active at night.
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- There
are two subfamilies in Notodontidae, the NOTODONTINAE and the THAUMETOPOEINAE.
The adult moths are similar in the two subfamilies but the eggs and
caterpillars are very different.
- Banksia Notodontid Moth
  - Psalidostetha banksiae (Danima banksiae), length 50mm
- The caterpillar can be found feeding on Grevillea and Banksia. We found quite a number of them on one
plant in Alexandra Hill during late summer. When disturbed, the caterpillar raised its head as the
above pictures. We
brought two home and try to raise them and see how the adult moth look like. Check
this page for the details.
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- Wattle Notodontid Moth
  - Neola semiaurata, caterpillar body length
40mm
- We found this caterpillar feeding on wattle leaf in Karawatha Forest
during late summer. The caterpillar is pinkish-brown in colour, covered with
sparse short hairs. As other caterpillars in this family, when disturbed, the caterpillar raised its head.
Near its end, there are a pair of eye spots which can open and close. Please
visit this page for more pictures and
information.
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- Gum Notodontid Moth
 - Destolmia lineata, subfamily NOTODONTINAE, caterpillar body length
40mm
- Found this caterpillar on Oct 2007, Bulimba Creek near Sunnybank. This
caterpillar is green in colour with yellow lines along each side of its
body. Its head is pale brown in colour. This
caterpillar raised its head when disturbed, so we knew it should be in this Notodontidae family.
We did not found the adult moth yet. Please also visit this page
for more pictures.
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- Reference:
- 1. NOTODONTIDAE of Australia
- Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley, 2008.
- 2. Moths
of Australia - I. F. B. Common, Melbourne University Press,
1990, p417.
- 3. Moths
of Australia - Bernard D'Abrera, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1974,
p70.
- 4. A
Guide to Australian Moths - Paul Zborowski, Ted Edwards, CSIRO
PUBLISHING, 2007, p173.
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