Hecatesia fenestrata
Encyclopedia
The Common Whistling Moth (Hecatesia fenestrata) is a moth
of the Noctuidae
family. It is endemic to south-eastern Australia
.
The wingspan
is about 30 mm. The forewings are black with two white bands. In males, there is a patch without scales, located near the costa. Instead of the scales, they have a ribbed area, used to make a clicking-whistling sound when flying by rubbing this ribbed area against a small protrusion. The noise is probably used to attract females. The hindwings are orange with a black border.
The larvae feed on Cassytha melantha
. They have sparse white hairs along the body and irregular bands of orange, black and pale yellow, as well as a prominent lateral pale yellow line, and an area of red near the tail.
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
of the Noctuidae
Noctuidae
The Noctuidae or owlet moths are a family of robustly-built moths that includes more than 35,000 known species out of possibly 100,000 total, in more than 4,200 genera. They constitute the largest family in the Lepidoptera....
family. It is endemic to south-eastern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
The wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
is about 30 mm. The forewings are black with two white bands. In males, there is a patch without scales, located near the costa. Instead of the scales, they have a ribbed area, used to make a clicking-whistling sound when flying by rubbing this ribbed area against a small protrusion. The noise is probably used to attract females. The hindwings are orange with a black border.
The larvae feed on Cassytha melantha
Cassytha melantha
Cassytha melantha is a parasitic vine. Common names include Coarse Dodder-laurel and Large Dodder-laurel. The fruits are about 10-15 millimetres in diameter and are green, drying to black...
. They have sparse white hairs along the body and irregular bands of orange, black and pale yellow, as well as a prominent lateral pale yellow line, and an area of red near the tail.