Eumelea rosalia (Stoll, 1781)
(one synonym : Ametris punicearia Hübner, [1823])
OENOCHROMINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Eumelea rosalia
female
(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

These caterpillars have been found feeding on :

  • Mallotus ( EUPHORBIACEAE ) and
  • Clinostigma ( ARECACEAE ).

    Eumelea rosalia
    male
    (Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

    The moths of this species are yellow or orange, sometimes with a greenish or purplish tinge. They have dark red speckles and two indistinct red curved oblique bands right across each wing, unlike other species in this genus which have straight or incomplete bands. The males are generally rather redder than the females. The moths have a wingspan of about 4 cms. The moths are often inclined to rest like some other Geometrids upside down.

    Eumelea rosalia
    mating pair
    (Photo: courtesy of Neil Hewett, Cooper Creek Wilderness, Queensland)

    The species occurs across south-east Asia and the south-west Pacific, including :

  • New Caledonia,
  • India,
  • Philippines,

    as well as in Australia in

  • Queensland, and
  • northern New South Wales.

    Eumelea rosalia
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 10.13, p. 370.

    Buck Richardson,
    Mothology,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2008, p. 19.

    Caspar Stoll,
    Papillons exotiques,
    in Pieter Cramer:
    De uitlandsche kapellen, voorkomende in de drie waereld,
    Volume 4 (1782), pp. 152-153, and also p. 251, and also Plate 368, fig. F.

    Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
    A Guide to Australian Moths,
    CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 141.


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    (updated 18 April 2011, 12 February 2024)