Anomis involuta (Walker, [1858])
(one synonym : Gonitis vitiensis Butler, 1886)
Jute Looper
CALPINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Anomis involuta
(Photo: courtesy of Kell Nielsen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

This Caterpillar is mainly green, with black spots, and a pale brown head. It has reduced prolegs, and progresses in a looper fashion.

Anomis involuta
(Photo: courtesy of Kell Nielsen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

It is a pest on :

  • Jute ( Corchorus, MALVACEAE ),

    and has also been found feeding on :

  • Cottonwood ( Hibiscus tiliaceus, MALVACEAE ), and
  • Brown kurrajong ( Commersonia bartramia, STERCULIACEAE ).

    Anomis involuta
    (Photo: courtesy of Kell Nielsen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

    The caterpillar grows to a length of about 3 cms.

    Anomis involuta
    leaves parted to show caterpillar about to pupate, constructing its cocoon
    (Photo: courtesy of Kell Nielsen, Gold Coast)

    It pupates in a sparse cocoon between a pair of leaves on the foodplant.

    Anomis involuta
    (Photo: courtesy of Kell Nielsen, Gold Coast, Queensland)

    The adult moth of this species is brown with a variable pale sinuous pattern and often a central white spot on each forewing.

    Anomis involuta
    (Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, listed as Gonitis involuta)

    The moths have a wing-span of about 4 cms.

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

    The species occurs in south-east Asia and the south Pacific, including:

  • Cook Islands,
  • India,
  • Japan,
  • Sri Lanka,

    as well as in Australia in

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

    Anomis involuta
    (Photo: courtesy of Kell Nielsen, Gold Coast)

    Taxonomists are divided over whether this species belongs in Anomis or Gonitis.


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 44.14, p. 449.

    Peter Marriott,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 8,
    Night Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA(B)
    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2017, pp. 12-13.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 125.

    Francis Walker,
    Noctuidae,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 13 (1858), pp. 1003-1004, No. 12.


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    (created 6 February 2010, updated 30 June 2012, 9 May 2019, 15 August 2020)