Australian silkworm moths, family Carthaeidae, are a monobasic relict family in Bombycoidea with a single species from western Australia. The family is in the superfamily Bombycoidea (series Bombyciformes), in the section Cossina, subsection Bombycina, of the division Ditrysia. Adults large (75 to 100 mm wingspan), with head scaling roughened; haustellum developed; maxillary palpi small, 3-segmented; antennae bipectinate, or apparently tripectinate (serrate in females); body robust. Wings broad and triangular but termen rounded; forewing with somewhat acute apex. Maculation gray with large dark eyespot medially on all wings and band of gray-brown at base and along termen; hindwing reddish at apex with blue in eyespot. Adults are nocturnal (usually after midnight). Larvae are leaf feeders, with numerous clubbed setae. Host plants are only in Proteaceae.
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References
Common, I. F. B. 1966. A new family of Bombycoidea (Lepidoptera) based on Carthaea saturnioides Walker from Western Australia. Journal of the Entomological Society of Queensland. 5: 29–36.Google Scholar
Common, I. F. B. 1990. Family Carthaeidae. pp. 401–403 In Moths of AustraliaMelbourne University Press, Melbourne.Google Scholar
Heppner, J. B. 2003. Carthaeidae. In Lepidopterorum Catalogus, (n.s.). Fasc. 105. Association for Tropical Lepidoptera, Gainesville. 8 pp.Google Scholar
