Donuca rubropicta (Butler, 1874)
 (previously known as Calliodes rubropicta)
CATOCALINI,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Donuca rubropicta
(Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Bundaberg, Queensland)

This adult moth has a spectacular pattern, with bold white lines and two large eyespots. Note how the diagonal lines on the wings link up when the moth is at rest to give it a false axis.

Donuca rubropicta
(Photo: courtesy of Evan Harris, Ipswich, Queensland)

There are scarlet areas along the sides of the abdomen and the hind margins of the hindwings. The moth has a wingspan of about 5 cms.

Donuca rubropicta
(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The species is found in Australia in:

  • Queensland , and
  • New South Wales.

    Donuca rubropicta
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Jack Versace, Brisbane, Queensland)

    Further reading :

    Arthur G. Butler,
    Descriptions of two new species of Heterocerous Lepidoptera in the collecton of the British Museum,
    Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,
    Volume 11 (1874), pp. 77-78.

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 21.15, p. 454.

    George Francis Hampson,
    Noctuiae,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum,
    Volume 12 (1913), p. 370, No. 7480, and also Plate 210, figure 13.

    Peter Hendry,
    At the Light Trap: Records of daytime flying moths (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Agaristinae) and the genus Donuca (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: catocalini),
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 55 (December 2009), pp. 24-27,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club.

    Jan Penny and Peter Hendry,
    You Asked,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 72 (March 2014), p. 34,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club.

    Buck Richardson,
    Mothology,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2008, pp. 6, 23.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 131.

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    (updated 12 December 2011, 30 October 2017)