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Project Noah Nature School
Maroga melanostigma
A smooth white moth with a wing span of 40 mm, with, as the name suggests two small spots of black on the wings. Surprisingly, the underside showed orange and black banding on the dorsal side of the abdomen and a white belly. The legs were covered with short orange coloured setae. Eyes and antennae were black. labial palps were rec-curved (pic 3)
Spotted under bright garden lights on a warm night.
I tried to move the moth from the lights as there were many spiders lurking in the fixtures waiting to feast on insects attracted to the lights. As I did so, the moth clung to the small stick and curved the tip of its abdomen and laid on its back making no attempt to fly away (pic 2). This reportedly is a behaviour seen in this species, which is interesting.
Family: Oecophoridae
Subfamily: Xylorhyctinae
https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:...
Spotted on Dec 12, 2018
Submitted on Dec 13, 2018
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