Data aroa (Bethune-Baker, 1906)
 (previously known as Thyria aroa)
ACRONICTINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Data aroa
(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

The Caterpillar of this species is brown, with a white-outlined forward-pointing dark chevron on the back of each segment.

Data aroa
(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

At the sides: each spiracle is set in a large dark brown circle edged in white. The sides and underside are speckled in green.

Data aroa
head in close-up
(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

The head is dark brown, marked with a pale inverted 'V'. The caterpillar appeared to feed on

  • Strap Fern (Pyrrosia longifolia, POLPODIOPHYTA).

    Data aroa
    pupa in opened cocoon
    (Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

    The caterpillar grows to a length of about 4.5 cms. The pupa is formed in a cocoon in the leaf litter. The pupa is brown, with a dark line along the back of the abdomen. The pupa has a length of about 2 cms.

    Data aroa
    (Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

    The forewings of the adult moth have a complex pattern of greyish brown with white marks near the wingtips, and green marks near the middle.

    Data aroa
    (Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

    Various groups of scales on the body and on the wings can be held erect.

    Data aroa
    showing erect sets of scale
    (Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

    The hindwings are orange, but usually covered by the forewings when the insect is at rest.

    Data aroa
    (Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

    The abdomen is orange with a tapering dark mark along the back. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

    Data aroa
    female, drawing by George Francis Hampson,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
    Noctuidæ, Volume VII (1908), Plate CXX, fig. 27,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

    The species occurs in :

  • New Guinea

    as well as in Australia in

  • Queensland.

    Data aroa
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Julatten, Queensland)

    Further reading :

    George Thomas Bethune-Baker,
    New Noctuidae from British New Guinea,
    Novitates Zoologicae,
    Volume 13 (1906), pp. 199-200, No. 22.

    George Francis Hampson,
    Catalogue of Noctuidae in the British Museum,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum,
    Volume 7 (1908), p. 528, No. 3393, and also Plate 120, fig. 27.

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    (updated 24 October 2011, 20 August 2019, 9 September 2021)