female
(Photo: by Sarah and Michael Guppy, courtesy of Joan Fearn, Moruya, New South Wales)

The adult moth is rather wasp-like, having a black body with white bands, and a red collar around its head. The wings are black but lose the scales readily to become partly transparent. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms.

male underside

The species is found in the southern half of Australia, including

drawing by Arthur G. Butler, listed as Procris tricolor,
Illustrations of typical specimens of Lepidoptera Heterocera in the collection of the British Museum,
Part 1 (1877), Plate VI, fig. 6,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Gerstein Library, University of Toronto.

The species name actually covers a complex of several unrelated species, which are superficially similar, but which can only be distinguished by microscopic examination of the genitalia.

Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 7.18, pp. 297-298.

Gerhard M. Tarmann,
Zygaenid moths of Australia: a revision of the Australian Zygaenidae,
CSIRO Publishing, 2004.

Francis Walker,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 1 (1854), p. 111, No. 13.

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(updated 28 January 2012, 26 November 2025)