Athetis maculatra (Lower, 1902)
(previously known as Caradrina maculatra)
ACRONICTINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Athetis maculatra
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult moth of this species has pale brown forewings each often with a dark mark near the middle of the margin, and several faint transverse zig-zag lines. The hindwings are white, darkening slightly at the edges. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.

Athetis maculatra
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The undersides are off-white with faint shadows of the upper surface markings.

Athetis maculatra
underside
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The species has been found in

  • Western Australia,
  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland, and
  • New South Wales.

    Athetis maculatra
    female, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Athetis maculatra,

    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
    Noctuidæ, Volume VIII (1909), Plate CXXXI, fig. 2,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.


    Further reading :

    George Francis Hampson,
    Catalogue of Noctuidae in the British Museum,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum,
    Volume 8 (1909), pp. 362-363, No. 4011, and also Plate 123, fig. 7.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Volume 26 (1901), pp. 651-652.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 119.


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    (updated 22 November 2011, 22 May 2014, 1 March 2019, 30 August 2021)