Donuca spectabilis Walker, 1865
 (one synonym : Serrodes xanthorrhoea Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875)
White-spotted Owl-Moth
CATOCALINI,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

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

The Caterpillar of this species feeds on :

  • Golden Wreath Wattle ( Acacia saligna, MIMOSACEAE ).

    Donuca spectabilis
    male,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), Plate CXII, fig. 21,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    The forewings of the adult moth have a complex brown pattern. The hindwings are also brown, but each has two white patches. The abdomen has orange penultimate segments. The forelegs have red hairs on the femurs. The moth has a wingspan of about 5 cms.

    Donuca spectabilis
    male, underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Cairns, Queensland)

    The species is found over most of mainland Australia, including

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

    Donuca spectabilis
    showing red hairs on the foreleg femurs
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Cairns, Queensland)

    Some taxonomists have synonomised this species with Donuca memorabilis. However, Walker himself, the author of both species, clearly thought they were different species, differing particularly in the colouring of the forelegs. Also the distinguished Lepidopterist Ian Common treated the two species as distinct in his book Moths of Australia, so here we list them separately.

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 21.12, p. 454.

    Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer,
    Zoologischer Theil: Lepidoptera,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), p. 18, and also Plate 112, Fig. 21.

    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.

    Peter Marriott,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 8,
    Night Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA(B)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2017, pp. 22-23.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 132.

    Francis Walker,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Volume 33 (1865), p. 926.

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    (updated 14 August 2008, 10 April 2017, 20 February 2020, 11 July 2021)