Monday 13 February 2012

Out of the dark

In a dark recess at the back of the shed I found a couple of visitors that like to spend the daylight hours hidden away. I caught one and brought it out for a photo before it headed back into the dark.

One of the Noctuidae family, this quite large moth Speiredonia spectrans, is reasonably common and found from the Torres Strait islands, throughout Queensland and as far south as Sydney. The lava feed on acacia species of which we have quite a few. You can get a bit of a start when you disturb a number of these moths and they fly out from a dark corner. The shading varies considerably, as they tend to blend with what ever they are resting upon, so the one in the photo is lighter than it was when it came out of the dark.

2 comments:

  1. What a superb moth Ian - its fascinating to see the species of moth and buttefly that are found in Australia. Thanks so much for posting the photo.

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  2. Thank you again for your kind comments; much appreciated.
    This moth is one that I expect to see each summer but last year didn't see any at all, so pleased to be able to post a photo this year.
    Cheers

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