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Abantiades atripalpis
This poor girl had just come out of her home underground after 18 months to do her final thing - reproduce. She was being attacked and stung repeatedly in the face by a (introduced) European wasp. I must confess I intervened. She seemed stuck abdomen down in the deep grass. She was quite large - approx. 140mm across. Although she was moving I don't think the prognosis was very good. (Almost devoid of scales)
Seems to have come out of a stand of delicate acacias (maybe silver wattle). There were many tall eucalyptus nearby.
This one could be A labyrinthicus
Flight times for Trictena atripalpis are April-June and Abantiades are December-March "..Hepialidae have short, pectinate antennae and, unusually primitive for Lepidoptera, lack a functional proboscis or retinaculum and are therefore non-feeding. The moths possess several other morphological features that are considered phylogenetically primitive. The gap between the fore- and hindwing is distinct and the wings are covered in scale-like hairs. At the base of the forewing is a jugum, a small lobe that joins the fore- and hindwings during flight. In females, the configuration of the genitalia is exoporian, typified by an external groove along which spermatophores are transferred after mating, from the copulatory opening (the ostium bursae), to the ovipore for fertilisation..." (Wikipedia)
These moths spend most of their lives underground feeding on the roots of 2 species of eucalyptus - E. regnans the 'Mountain Ash' is one and the Messmate-Stringybark is the other. The females get fertilised then fly around spraying 10000 eggs into the leaf litter as they go. They have no mouth parts and do not feed during this time.
As an added note I found her decayed corpse at the same location a week later... dam those introduced wasps.
Trictena is now replaced with Abantiades.
Spotted on May 28, 2012
Submitted on May 28, 2012
12 Comments
It wasn't so good for macro Mayra - these moths are really big!
Thanks J and Mayra.
Nice shot, Argy! Poor moth!
Fantastic macro!
Female Abantiades labyrinthicus is 95% likely. There are only 2 or 3 possibilities but variability seems high. Endemic to Aust. 16 species in total, 3 within Victoria, and only 2 with these recorded dimensions. I checked her again yesterday - she was well dead in exactly the same location and euro wasps were cleaning up.
Brilliant Martin. They're the ones. I should have described the 'ribbing' in the wings. I think I'm going with Pindi moth. It's special in Vic and Tas being dependent upon E.regnans!! I think you're right about some loss of scales. This one would be at the very end of her life anyway.
This group has some larger species and is quite variable in color.
Happy researching =) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abantiades
An interesting suggestion Martin. The description of life cycle certainly fits the circumstances of this one. I'm not convinced about the loss of scales. As you can see in pic 2 the forewing patterns are quite well mirrored. Other scale loss pictures I've seen usually show clear pattern irregularities between one wing and the other. Near that small stand of wattles L and I found several other forewings each with the same pattern and each about 50mm long. (dam those euro wasps) The main thing here though is the size. This one was at about 6 inches not 6 cm.
I think it is most likely Oxycanus dirempta and the female is more red than the gray male http://bencruachan.org/blog/ The forewings look to have lost much of its scales and the pattern is missing, would you agree? http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au...
wonderful spotting and sad story. She looks huge indeed!
Thanks Sachin.
I was a bit worried about a moth coming out in our winter because it's so cold here. Later I could see what a fantastic fur coat she had.
Very nice capture,