Bastilla absentimacula

Bastilla absentimacula (Guenée, 1852)
(previously known as Naxia absentimacula)
EREBINAE, EREBIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, listed as Bastilla absentimacula)

The Caterpillars of this species are speckled grey with two white spots on the head. The caterpillars have been found on

Leafflowers ( Phyllanthus species, PHYLLANTHACEAE ).

The adult moths have a broad curving pattern of light and dark brown patches on the forewings, and suffused white lines on a brown background on the hindwings. In the natural resting posture of the moth, the curved patterns on the two forewings are aligned, giving the appearance of a single item that could be some bark or a dead leaf. The moths have a wingspan of about 6 cms.

male, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Parallelia absentimacula,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
Noctuidæ, Volume XII (1913), Plate CCXX, figure 19,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

The species occurs over eastern Asia, including

and in Australia in

Queensland, and

New South Wales.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, listed as Bastilla absentimacula)