Marvellous Meyrickella

This example of the wonderful Meyrickella torquesauria came to the moth light in the back yard this evening.

With only 26 records on iNaturalist in Brisbane (6 of them by me), this rather handsome moth remains scarce 163 years after it was described by Thomas Lucas from a Brisbane specimen in 1862. He noted it was “rare”. It occurs from Arnhem Land across northern Australia and down the east coast to Victoria. It is known to feed on cypress-pines (Callitris), which are themselves fairly scarce around here. But I’m not sure much else is known about the ecology of this species.

British physician Dr Thomas Lucas emigrated to Australia from the UK in 1877, ill with tuberculosis. He developed an interest in the pawpaw tree and planted a bunch in his Brisbane backyard. Within a few years he was manufacturing pawpaw ointments as remedies for cuts, sores, ulcers, insect bites, and various skin complaints. After Lucas’ death in 1917, his descendants continued production under the well-known Lucas’ Papaw Remedies brand, based in Brisbane.

What is perhaps less well known is that Lucas was also a keen entomologist and birder. He built a major Lepidoptera collection that is now in South Australia Museum. Meyrickella torquesauria was among the many species that Lucas described for science, first under the genus Prionophora in 1862, then transferred into Meyrickella by Carlos Berg in 1898.

What a lovely moth!