Lemon-scented Tea Tree Moth

Description:

Mating pair of moths about 3cm across the wings. There was some differences in my images and the references and these were noted to the Butterfly House which sent a reply (notes)

Habitat:

Nocturnal in a wood on an some invasive paspalum Grass about 1m tall

Notes:

I sent a copy of the images to the Butterfly House email. The emails were replied to. Let me see if the information from Don Herbison-Evans will fit here and many thanks to him for taking the time to assist. This, your latest image, I would still describe as predominantly black, white and green, but has four brownish areas on the forewings: along the leading edge, and also another at the apex, and two more nearer the middle of each forewing. These are the same brownish areas that appear in Peter Marriot's photo at http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au... but not in Donald Hobern's photo. Your other moth (on the right) has more green areas on the forewings, but still shows the two small brown areas nearer the middle of the forewings, which all the photos show. But then all species, just like Earias chlorodes at http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Tax... show some variations in colour. Sometimes it is genetic, sometimes geographical, or environmental such as due to the seasons, or climate or even different larval food, such as feeding on flower parts versus foliage. In view of your observations, I had a look to see if this species showed sexual dimorphism. Some Lepidoptera species are sexually dimorphic, with a different colouring for the male and the female, such as http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au... but most species are not. I cannot quite see the antennae clearly on the two moths in your picture, with the software that I have at hand, but I think that the greener specimen on the right is probably the male as it seems to have antennae that are more feathery than its mate. But the specimens imaged at http://www.lepbarcoding.org/geometridae/... seem to show no correlation to my eyes, between the sex (judging by the antennae) and the extensiveness of the brownish areas on the forewings, so I think the colour variations have other causes rather than sexual genetics. I do note however that none of the barcoding website photos show the intensity of green which is apparent in both your specimens and the ones on my webpage, so I think the colour saturation of the specimens decreases with age after death, as with a number of other green Lepidoptera species, such as http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au... Cheers, Don