Orange-marked Noctuid (formerly known as Orthosia mesombra) ACRONICTINAE, NOCTUIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
male
(Photo: courtesy of
Leuba Ridgway, Upper Ferntree Gully, Victoria)
The adult moth of this species has fawn forewings each with various markings including a large dark triangle near the middle containing two reddish blobs, one round and one crescent-shaped.
The dark triangles on the forewings are less pronounced in the female.
The hindwings are shiny off-white with dark veins, shading to brown at the wingtips. The wingspan is about 3 cms.
The species has been found in:
There has been much confusion over the specimens of this species and Proteuxoa nuna. But the original descriptions are clear, and comparison with the type specimens have shown it to be clear, that specimens illustrated in various webpages which are labelled with one of these names, may be labelled mistakenly.
Further reading :
George Francis Hampson,
Catalogue of Noctuidae in the British Museum,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum,
Volume 8 (1909), p. 378, No. 4036, and also
Plate 131, fig. 16. (listed as Omphaletis nuna)
Oswald B. Lower,
New Australian Lepidoptera,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 17 (1892), p. 153.
Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, pp. 20-21.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(written 4 February 2017, updated 24 December 2020)