Earias huegeliana Gaede, 1937
Rough Bollworm
CHLOEPHORINAE,   NOLIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA,  
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley & Dave Britton

Earias huegeliana
(Photo: copyright Dave Britton)

These Caterpillars feed on the young shoots, flowers, and seed pods of their foodplant. They are a pest on :

  • Cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum, MALVACEAE ),

    and also have been found on :

  • Australian Native Cotton ( Gossypium australe, MALVACEAE ),
  • Yellow Hibiscus ( Hibiscus panduriformis, MALVACEAE ),
  • Desert Rose ( Alyogyne hakeifolia, MALVACEAE ),
  • Desert Lantern Bush ( Abutilon otocarpum, MALVACEAE ),
  • Native Rosella ( Abelmoschus ficulneus, MALVACEAE ), and also
  • Australian Boab ( Adansonia gregorii, BOMBACACEAE ).

    Earias huegeliana
    (Photo: courtesy of Dianne Clarke, Mapleton, Queensland)

    The moths of this noctuid have forewings with variable white and green stripes along their length, and satin white hindwings with brown margins. They often have two green stripes on the thorax. The moths have a wingspan of about 2 cms. The species has been considered to be a variant of Earias perhuegeli, despite the difference in forewing pattern and coloration.

    Earias huegeliana
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

    This species occurs over the islands in the south Pacific, including

  • Cook Islands,
  • French Polynesia,

    as well mainland Australia:

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

    Earias huegeliana
    mating pair
    (Photo: courtesy of Trevor Jinks, North Burnett, Queensland)


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 48.8, pp. 59, 65, 458.

    Max Gaede,
    Macrolepidoptera of Indo-Australian Fauna: Noctuiform Phalaenae, Acontiinae,
    in Adalbert Seitz (ed.): The Macrolepidoptera of the World,
    Stuttgart : Alfred Kernen Verlag, Volume 11, 1938, p. 423, and also Plate 40, fig. f1.

    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 161.

    Peter Marriott,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 2,
    Tiger Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (A)
    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2009, pp. 30-33.


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    (updated 25 April 2012, 16 May 2017, 25 November 2019, 2 July 2021)