Early instars appear to feed on fungal tissue on decaying wood on the forest floor. Later instars move to a foodplant, and bore into and feed on the bark, and later feed on callus tissue under the bark that is regrown by the plant after being damaged. The tunnel can reach a length of about 20 cms. The mouth of the tunnel becomes covered in with a large aglomeration off frass.

pupa in tunnel
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Western Australia)

The caterpillars pupate in their tunnels.

empty pupal shell protruding from tunnel
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Western Australia)

Before the adult moth emerges from the pupa, the pupa wriggles to be partly out of its tunnel.

Female
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Western Australia)

The female adult moths have green forewings, each with some variable brown markings. The females have orange hind wings. The female moths have a wingspan of up to 7 cms.

Male
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Western Australia)

The male adult moths have green forewings, each with a submarginal white line. The hindwings of the males are white, each with a green hind margin. The male moths have a wingspan of about 4 cms.

Female
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Western Australia)

The moths are superficially similar to those of Aenetus blackburnii.

The species is found in

Male
(Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Western Australia)

Further reading :

Paul Kay, Paul M. Hutchinson, & John R. Grehan,
New rearing method, life cycle, tunneling behavior and ecological notes on the splendid ghost moth Aenetus djernaesae Simonsen, 2018 from Western Australia (Lepidoptera: Hepialidae),
Journal of Insect Biodiversity,
Volume 15, Part 2 (2020), pp. 26–39.

Thomas J. Simonsen,
Splendid Ghost Moths and their Allies,
A Revision of Australian Abantiades, Oncopera, Aenetus, Archaeoaenetus and Zelotypia (Hepialidae),
Monographs on Australian Lepidoptera Volume 12,
CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne (2018), pp. 43, 141-143, 244, plates 27C-27D.

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(written 17 January 2020, updated 8 March 2020)