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Project Noah Nature School
A large Cossid moth at 60mm with typical 'cracked' patterns on upper wings including some white patches which might help with species. Hind wings not revealed. Orange veins noted on upper wings - maybe related to scale loss on head.
Resting under strong lights at a local used car yard late at night.
This was one of many similar looking but very different sized cossids found in one evening. The (almost scary) next size up can be seen here... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/136... Yet to search for this one... they're getting bigger and less cooperative ! Endoxyla sp?
SS and Jemma - we found the mother of all Cossids last night. About 190mm wingspan (calculated). I think she was removing bricks from the school wall. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/127... We're still dealing with the size shock and yes she smelled goaty.
Ha! .. but Wow I thought I was joking but Leuba now tells me that's why they got called goat moths - the smell !!
You're right. Some of them have spectacular colours on the hind wings. It's just so hard to get them to reveal it even though they are a type of moth that doesn't care much about being handled. Really quite docile but if you try to lift a fore wing they get grumpy and try to flap you to death. :-) Here's another called wattle goat moth http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/120...
just a guess on my part. Went by the orange.
If they have such a big wingspan,it must be nice to see them opened up.
Thanks for the link Jemma. I think the white spots are important and not present on that Brisbane one. In fact it seems to have darker grey blobs where mine has white. There are so many here and many not fully described yet. Wingspan on these is usually a little over twice the length so probably almost 6 inches for this one. On the same night Leuba found an even bigger one - at least 170mm wingspan. Almost all of them come from wattle and eucalyptus. Must cross link to previous cossids.
Spotted on Jan 11, 2014
Submitted on Jan 13, 2014
