Aiteta iridias

Aiteta iridias (Meyrick, 1889)
(one synonym: Aiteta elaina)
CHLOEPHORINAE , NOLIDAE

Don Herbison-Evans ( donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley

Aiteta iridias
(Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin)

These caterpillars are off-white and covered in dark dots. There is a crest on the penultimate abdominal segment. The caterpillars were thought to be feeding on

Sovereignwood ( Terminalia sericocarpa, COMBRETACEAE ).

cocoon
(Photo: courtesy of Craig Nieminski, Darwin)

The caterpillar pupates in an untidy brown and white cocoon under a foodpalnt leaf.

The adult moths are brown with of dark diagonal lines across each forewing. The wingspan is about 3 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda)

The species has been found in

New Guinea,
as well as:

Northern Territory, and

Queensland.

male
from Illustration 4 on Plate CLXXXVIII of Hampson's Noctuidae of the British Museum, 1903-1913.
(Courtesy of Joe Kunkel, University of Massachusetts)

female
from Illustration 3 on Plate CLXXXVIII of Hampson's Noctuidae of the British Museum, 1903-1913.
(Courtesy of Joe Kunkel, University of Massachusetts)