Nagia linteola (Guenée, 1852)
(one synonym : Catephia pilipes Guenée, 1852)
Tropical White Patch
CALPINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Nagia linteola
(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Mt. Molloy, Queensland)

These Caterpillars are brown with a complex pattern of dark lines on the head and along the body.

Nagia linteola
close-up of head
(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Mt. Molloy, Queensland)

The caterpillars have a short pair of horns on the back of each abdominal segment, some associated with a reddish pigmentation. The caterpillars appear to have four pairs of prolegs, but the anterior two pairs are reduced and not used, so it progresses in a looper fashion.

Nagia linteola
(Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Mt. Molloy, Queensland)

The caterpillars have been recorded feeding on

  • False Almond ( Terminalia species, COMBRETACEAE ),
  • Crepe Myrtle ( Lagerstroemia species, LYTHRACEAE ), and possibly
  • Morton Bay Ash ( Corymbia tesselaris, MYRTACEAE ).

    Nagia linteola
    cocoon covered in chewed bark on a branch
    (Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Mt. Molloy, Queensland)

    The caterpillars grow to a length of about 5 cms.

    Nagia linteola
    pupa inside a broken cocoon
    (Photo: courtesy of Dick Whitford, Mt. Molloy, Queensland)

    Pupation occurs in a cocoon covered in debris and chewed bark on the trunk or a stem of the food plant.

    Nagia linteola
    (Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

    The adult moths have forewings with a complex pattern in variable colours, including yellow, brown, green, and white. The hindwings are white with broad black margins and dark basal areas.

    Nagia linteola
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

    The black margins of the hindwings sometimes contain white patches. The wingspan is about 5 cms.

    Nagia linteola
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

    This species occurs around the old world in the tropics, including:

  • Borneo,
  • New Guinea,
  • South Africa, and
  • Thailand,

    Nagia linteola
    Cocos Islands 1982

    as well as the subspecies ecclesiastica (Butler, 1874) occurring Australia which has been found in:

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

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


    Further reading :

    Arthur G. Butler,
    On a collection of Lepidoptera Heterocera from Australia,
    Cistula Entomologica,
    Volume 1 (1874), p. 292.

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 45.8, p. 451.

    Achille Guenée,
    Noctuélites,
    in Boisduval & Guenée:
    Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
    Volume 9, Part 7 (1852), pp. 44-45, No. 1375.

    Peter Marriott,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 8,
    Night Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA(B)
    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2017, pp. 18-19.


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    (updated 20 July 2012, 24 June 2014, 25 May 2020)