Mecodina praecipua (Walker, 1865)
(one synonym : Marmorinia nara Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875)
CATOCALINI,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

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

The caterpillar of this species is thin and green, with a narrow head and tail. There is a yellow line along each side and it has yellow spiracles. The caterpillar has the full set of prolegs. It lives on the underside of a leaf of its foodplant. The caterpillar has been found feeding on

  • Ichnocarpus ( APOCYNACEAE ).

    It pupates in a cell in the soil.

    Mecodina praecipua
    female, drawing by Felder & Rogenhofer, listed as Marmorinia nara
    ,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), Plate CXX, fig. 47,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    The adult moth has greyish-brown wings, each with a dark submarginal line. Each forewing has an irregular black triangle on the costa near the wingtip, and a small black dumbbell mark near the middle of the wing. The wingspan is about 5 cms.

    The species occurs across south-east Asia, including:

  • Hong Kong,
  • India,
  • Sri Lanka,
  • Taiwan,

    and in Australia in:

  • Queensland.


    Further reading :

    Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer,
    Zoologischer Theil: Lepidoptera,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), p. 13, and also Plate 120, fig. 47.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 143.

    Francis Walker,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 33, Supplement 3 (1865), p. 1056.


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    (updated 10 March 2010, 31 August 2021)