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Project Noah Nature School
Monoctenia falernaria
A beautiful gum leaf mimic moth about 65mm wingspan. Patterns on the wing resemble those of a dry and decomposing eucalyptus leaf as does the overall shape. The behaviour of the moth was even more leaf-like. Initially it was very high on a wall so I touched it with a long stick and instead of flying it simply fell like a leaf to the litter below. It initially landed on it's back revealing similar colours but with 2 darker grey areas near the centre of the wings. Even when touched it refused to attempt flight and would just flip over to lie still on top of the other leaves. A leaf mimic in more than just appearance !
Attracted to strong night lights at the local school.
After seeing Chun's brilliant Moss spider I went out last night to find a mimic. :-) A looper caterpillar with only two pairs of prolegs, the caterpillars feed on various species of eucalyptus.
Common name might be 'Patched Leaf moth'
family: GEOMETRIDAE
subfamily: Oenochrominae s. str.
Distribution http://spatial.ala.org.au/?q=lsid:%22urn...
Spotted on Apr 7, 2014
Submitted on Apr 8, 2014
1 Comment
Very very envious ! "Holistic Mimicry", if there is such a term -wonderful and amazing!!! Lovely spotting Mark.