Chasmina candida (Walker, 1865)
 (one synonym : Xanthodes mariae Mabille, 1881)
ACRONICTINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin, Northern Territory)

This Caterpillar is pale brown or green, with short sparse hairs, and has a brown or yellow stripe along each side of the back, and four small black dots on the thorax.

The caterpillar has been found feeding on :

  • Cottonwood ( Hibiscus tiliaceus, MALVACEAE ).


    (Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin, Northern Territory)

    The pupa is brown.


    (Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin, Northern Territory)

    The pupa is formed in a silk shelter created in a folded leaf.


    (Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin, Northern Territory)

    The adult moths are white, and have an unusual concavity along the forewing costa. The fore legs are brown and the middle and hind legs are white.


    (Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin, Northern Territory)

    Underneath it is plain white.


    (Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin, Northern Territory)

    The species is found across southeast Asia and the Pacific islands, including :

  • Borneo,
  • Cocos Islands,
  • Hong Kong,
  • India,
  • Singapore.

    In Australia it has been found in

  • Northern Territory.


    Cocos Islands 1982

    Further reading :

    Francis Walker,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 32, Supplement part 2 (1865), pp. 638-639.

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    (updated 12 September 2011, 27 September 2018)