Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, from
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art

The adult moths of this species are dimorphic. The male has brown forewings each with a large orange area around the base.

male, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Tarache crocata,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
Noctuidæ, Volume X (1910), Plate CLXXII, fig. 15,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

The female has dark brown forewings with several variable white patches on the costa. For both sexes: each hindwing is orange with a broad brown band along the margin. The moth has a wing span of about 2 cms.

female, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Tarache crocata,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
Noctuidæ, Volume X (1910), Plate CLXXII, fig. 16,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

The species has been found in

as well as in Australia in:

Further reading :

Achille Guenée,
Noctuélites II,
in Boisduval & Guenée:
Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 6 (1852), p. 989.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 112.

previous caterpillar

Australian butterflies

Australian Lepidoptera

Australian moths

next caterpillar

(updated 9 August 2011, 11 June 2023)