Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Genus: Poecilasthena
Species: P. pulchraria
Binomial name: Poecilasthena pulchraria
Synonyms: Acidalia pulchraria, Asthena ondinata, Chlorochroma plurilineata, Asthena decolor.
Poecilasthena pulchraria is a very pale moth with a wingspan of about 25mm and is found in New Zealand and Australia. Its wings have lots of wiggly white lines across them and on the costal margin (the leading edge) of each forewing there is a darker band. In the centre of each forewing there is one small dark spot.
The caterpillars are green/brown marked with purplish brown and a broken white or cream lateral line. In New Zealand the green looping caterpillars are known to feed on Leucopogon fasciculatus (Soft Mingimingi).
A female moth
[1]
Female
[2]
A moth resting with wings fully extended.
[3]
Male on a window with daylight illuminating the wing patterns.
[4]
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
