This is Australia's largest Hawk Moth.

striped green form
(Photo: courtesy of Judy and David Addleton, Kempsey)

The Caterpillar presents a puzzle : deciding which end is the head. Its real head is an orange conical structure, but on its tail are two large raised black knobs. These look like a pair of large eyes, so that an observer or predator finds it difficult to determine which end is actually the head, hence its common name. The rest of the Caterpillar is green or yellow, often with yellow diagonal stripes, sometimes with purplish lateral markings, and is covered in soft short pale spines. It feeds on various PROTEACEAE such as :

Firewheel Tree ( Stenocarpus sinuatus ).

plain yellow form
(Photo: courtesy of Judy and David Addleton, Kempsey)

It grows to a length of about 10 cms.

(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

The adult moth is yellow and brown with broad wavy markings, and is large, with a wingspan of about 13 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Ros Runciman of Yeranda at Barrington Tops)

The species occurs mainly in the eastern half of New South Wales.

(Specimen: courtesy of the The Australian Museum)

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Further reading :

David Carter,
Butterflies and Moths, Collins Eyewitness Handbooks, Sydney 1992, p. 240.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 412.

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