Termessa orthocrossa Turner, 1922
Lichen moth
T. nivosa
Click to enlarge image
© Australian Museum
Fast Facts
-
Classification
- Genus
- Termessa
- Species
- orthocrossa
- Subfamily
- Lithosiinae
- Family
- Arctiidae
- Super Family
- Noctuoidea
- Order
- Lepidoptera
- Class
- Insecta
- Phylum
- Arthropoda
- Kingdom
- Animalia
-
- Life history mode
- terrestrial, volant
© Australian Museum
Introduction
This beautiful species of Termessa shows considerable variation in fore wing patterns, but is easily recognised by the wing shape and ground colour
Identification
This species has a similar angular fore wing shape and wing pattern to Termessa nivosa, but can be distinguished from T. nivosa by the pale orange-yellow ground colour (white in T. nivosa)
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
Toowoomba (type series), Expedition Range (QLD), 28 mile S. Armidale, 8km E of Capertee, 16km N. Coonabarabran, Mt Kaputar (NSW)
Seasonality
October to December
Feeding and diet
Larvae probably feed on lichens
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.
