Thoracolopha melanographa (Turner, 1908)
Variable Noctuid
(one synonym is Ariathisa ochropepla Turner, 1911)
ACRONICTINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Thoracolopha melanographa
(Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The forewings of the adult moth vary from pale to dark brown, each with a pattern of dark markings, including, near the middle, a pale boomerang next to a short pale stripe, both outlined with black. The hindwings are fawn, darkening at the margins, with dark veins. The thorax has a pale dorsal tuft. The wingspan is about 3 cms.

Thoracolopha melanographa
dark form
(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The species has been found in Australia in:

  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania, and
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Thoracolopha melanographa
    pale form
    (Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)


    Further reading :

    Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
    Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C)
    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, pp. 22-23.

    A. Jefferis Turner,
    New Australian Lepidoptera of the families Noctuidae and Pyralidae,
    Transactions and Proceedings and Report of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 32 (1908), p. 59.


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    (written 9 January 2021)