Joseph's Coat Moth - Agarista agricola
Family Noctuidae, sub family Agaristinae
This page contains information about Joseph's Coat Moths that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia. They are also known as Painted Vine Moths.
- Male, wing span 50mm, guarding its territory, there has the larvae's food-plants where the female lays eggs on.
- The moths are day flying, with black, red, pale blue and yellow colours. Male and female look similar except a bit larger and with larger white area on thorax.
- On Feb 2009, we went to the Forest Reserve near Anstead the first time. We found quite a number of Joseph's Coat Moths flying around. The moth flies with erratic flight path as most other moths do, except this moth flight during the day.
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- Male, wing span 50mm
- The moth also rests on leaf under sun shine, with wings wide flat opens
- The moth rests from time to time. When rests they rest on the shaped side of the large tree trunk, with head facing downwards. It seems that they fly within their territory.
- Do you see the scary predator's face pattern on the moth's wings? This is what we call "Birds draw the cat's face on moth's wings". details please check our web page on the discussions.
- Female, wing span 70mm
- On Jan 2010 in Karawatha Forest Echidna Trail, we saw a pair of Joseph's Coat Moths flying around the host plants (vine unknown sp.). When we came closer, the male flied away but the female still kept what it was doing and ignored our approaching.
- Male and female Joseph's Coat Moths look similar except the female has the larger white area on its thorax.
- The female Joseph's Coat Moth was flying around the host plants, landed on stem of those plants regularly. The female then dip its abdomen tip onto the stem look like laying eggs. However we did not see any eggs. The female just touching its abdomen tip with the plant. We believed the moth was making the territory so that the other females will not lay eggs on this plants. This explained why female moths and butterflies do not lay eggs on plants that have been lay-egged by other females. We observed this female territory marking behaviour among moths and butterflies, include the Imperial Blue Butterflies.
The Male
The Female
Territory near Host Plants
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- On Jan 2012 on Daisy Hills, we saw two male Joseph's Coat Moth fighting for their territory near the host plant. There were females flying pass by to lay eggs on the plants.
The Caterpillars
- Caterpillar length 40mm
- Caterpillars are brilliantly banded with white, black and orange colours. Each segment has row of few but thick black hairs.
- Small and large Caterpillars were feeding on food plant during the day. They did not care about our interrupt.
- Joseph's Coat Moth caterpillars feed on various vines from the VITACEAE family
- Slender Grape
Caterpillar on Slender Grape, Cayratia clematidea-
- We found quite a number of those caterpillars feeding on grape vine in Daisy Hill during late summer 2005. The caterpillars have alternate black and white bands with some orange bands. They have sparse black thick hairs.
The Food Plant
- Australian Native Grape
- ? Cissus opaca
- The Australian Native Grape is a weak climber found near the forest floor.
- The caterpillars are known to feed on cultivated grape vines Vitis vinifera as well.
- For more general information about this moth, please check this family Noctuidae page and this subfamily AGARISTINAE page.
- Reference:
- 1. Moths of Australia - Bernard D'Abrera, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1974, p78.
- 2. Agarista agricola (Donovan, 1805) - Don Herbison-Evans & Ian F.B. Common & Stella Crossley, Australian Caterpillars, 2008.
- 3. Moths of Australia - Ian F.B.Common, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p464, plate 22.24, 32.12.
- 4. Create More Butterflies - by Frank Jordan and Helen Schwencke, Earthling Enterprises, 2005, p78 and back cover.
- 5. Cissus opaca F.Muell - PlantNET, NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE.
- 6. Wild Plants of Greater Brisbane - Queensland Museum, 2003, p113.
