Austrocarea iocephala (Turner, 1902)
Broad-headed Moth
 (previously known as Maurilia iocephala)
CAREINI,   CHLOEPHORINAE,   NOLIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA,  
  
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Austrocarea iocephala
(Photo: courtesy of Harold McQueen, Goodna, Queensland)

This Caterpillar is pale patchy grey-brown with dorsal humps on the thorax, and on the third and last abdominal segments.

Austrocarea iocephala
(Photo: courtesy of Harold McQueen, Goodna, Queensland)

The caterpillar has been found feeding on trees in STERCULIACEAE, including:

  • Little Kurrajong ( Brachychiton bidwillii ), and
  • Peanut Tree ( Sterculia quadrifida ).

    Austrocarea iocephala
    (Photo: courtesy of Harold McQueen, Goodna, Queensland)

    The caterpillar pupates in a stiff brown cocoon with a hump around the thorax area. The cocoon is formed on a twig of its foodplant, and has a length of about 1.5 cms.

    Austrocarea iocephala
    (Photo: courtesy of Donald Hobern, Aranda, Australian Capital Territory)

    The adult moths of this species have brown forewings each with a number of dark zigzag lines.

    Austrocarea iocephala
    (Photo: courtesy of Harold McQueen, Goodna, Queensland)

    The hindwings are fawn, darkening toward the margin. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.

    Austrocarea iocephala
    (Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

    The underside is featureless.

    Austrocarea iocephala
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Harold McQueen, Goodna, Queensland)

    The species has been found in :

  • Papua,

    as well as in Australia in

  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Norfolk Island,
  • Victoria,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Austrocarea iocephala
    male, drawing by George Francis Hampson    ,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
    Noctuidæ, Volume XI (1912), Plate CLXXXIX, figure 19,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

    Austrocarea iocephala
    Norfolk Island 1976

    Further reading :

    Peter Marriott,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 2,
    Tiger Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (A)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria,
    2009, pp. 32-33.

    A. Jefferis Turner,
    New genera and species of Lepidoptera belonging to the family Noctuidae,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Volume 27 (1902), p. 94.

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    (updated 14 April 2013, 30 September 2025)