Termessa diplographa Turner, 1899
Lichen moth
T. gratiosa, T. zonophanes
Click to enlarge image
© Australian Museum
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Termessa
- Species
- diplographa
- Subfamily
- Lithosiinae
- Family
- Arctiidae
- Super Family
- Noctuoidea
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Class
- Insecta
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Kingdom
- Animalia
-
- Life history mode
- terrestrial, volant
Introduction
T. diplographa is one of several similar and variable species of Termessa.
Identification
T. diplographa resembles T. gratiosa in having pale areas within the broad black fascia, but is larger that T. gratiosa, and has a darker yellow ground colour (whitish-yellow in T. gratiosa). It is also similar to T. zonophanes but does not have the black scaling near the tip of the abdomen seen in T. zonophanes.
DISCLAIMER: The identifications presented on these pages should be taken as indicative only. As with many groups of Australian insects there has been no formal revision of the Lithosiinae in recent years, and there are many undescribed species present in collections. Many species are superficially similar, and require a specialist to separate them.
Distribution
From Toowoomba (QLD) south to Gisborne (VIC)
Seasonality
October to December
Further reading
The majority of images of Lithosiinae presented on these pages were taken from specimens housed in the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) (CSIRO, Canberra). I would like to thank the staff and researchers at ANIC for their generous assistance in providing me access to this collection, and I acknowledge the depth of effort and the investment of staff time that has gone into building and curating this splendid resource. In particular, I would like to thank Ted Edwards and Marianne Horak for their assistance.
