(Photo: copyright of Rob de Vos)

The adult moth has black forewings each with a broad irregular diagonal white band, The hindwings are white with broad black margins. The body has alternate black and yellow bands. The moth is frequently seen flying during the day. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

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

The species occurs as various subspecies around the orient, including :

as well as in Australia in

The range and DNA barcode are sufficiently similar to that of Nyctemera secundiana, to suggest that these are two races of the same species, or else ecological variants of the same species. This cannot be decided until they have been more studied.

Further reading :

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval,
Faune Entomologique de L'Ocean Pacifique,
in M.J. Dumont d'Urville:
Voyage de Decouvertes de la Corvette l'Astrolabe,
Division 7, Part 1 : Lepidopteres (1832), p. 200, No. 5.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 43.18, p. 434.

Edward Meyrick,
On the synonymy of some species of Nyctemera,
Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,
Volume 23 (1886) pp. 15-16.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 16.

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(updated 14 August 2012, 31 March 2016, 26 August 2021)