Hepialidae (family)
Unidentified Swift or Ghost Moth at Turner, ACT
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| Hepialidae (family) | MichaelMulvaney | 26 Oct 2016 | |
| Unverified | MichaelMulvaney | 26 Aug 2016 | |
| Unverified | matfarrington | 5 May 2016 |
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User's notes
30+ holes in the soil on the median strip. Next to each hole, a 100mm long, 20mm diameter thin brown chrysalis shell. Some type of moth?
3 comments
9 May 2016
Hi mat
I found similar pupal cases in the Mt Majura nature park east of the Fair mid of April this year and in March 2015 - there were 100's of them. Perhaps this is Trictena atripalpis, the rain moth, also known as bardee, bardy, bardi grub, or waikerie, a member of the Ghost or Swift Moth (Hepialidae) family. The adult moth have a wingspan of 12cm (male) to 16cm (female), the larvae feed on roots of Eucalyptus sp. Further info see http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/hepi/atripal.html
I found similar pupal cases in the Mt Majura nature park east of the Fair mid of April this year and in March 2015 - there were 100's of them. Perhaps this is Trictena atripalpis, the rain moth, also known as bardee, bardy, bardi grub, or waikerie, a member of the Ghost or Swift Moth (Hepialidae) family. The adult moth have a wingspan of 12cm (male) to 16cm (female), the larvae feed on roots of Eucalyptus sp. Further info see http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/hepi/atripal.html
9 May 2016
Correction: I took 2 photos of pupa cases on the 28th April 2015; from memory I noticed 100's of pupa cases 2 weeks earlier ie mid April 2015 which is around the same time as this year.
9 May 2016
Thanks Waltraud - I'm also pretty sure that it is a bardi grub (a favoured bait of those fishing the Murray). CNM isn't including moths yet but hope to in the future
Location information
- Coordinates 149.119531-35.267769
- Altitude 589.0m
- Places Turner, ACT
Sighting information
- 16 - 100 Abundance
- 17 Apr 2016 01:33 PM Recorded on
- matfarrington Recorded by
Collections
- matfarrington Canberra & Southern Tablelands NatureMapr Hepialidae (family) Swift and Ghost moths (Hepialidae) Moths (Lepidoptera) Insects
Species information
- Hepialidae (family) Scientific name
- Unidentified Swift or Ghost Moth Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1771m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
5 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- Additional attributes