Mocis trifasciata (Stephens, 1830)
 (one synonym : Remigia demonstrans Walker, 1858)
EREBINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Rob Downer, Brisbane, Queensland)

These Caterpillars are brown with faint stripes, and a dark underside. They have a striped head, and are missing two pairs of prolegs. The caterpillars have been known to feed on:

  • Kauri (Agathis australis, ARAUCARIACEAE),
  • Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata, FABACEAE), and
  • Rice (Oryza sativa, POACEAE).


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

    The adult moth is brown with dark transverse bands on each wing. The wingspan is about 4.5 cms.


    male, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Mocis trifasciata    ,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
    Noctuidæ, Volume XIII (1913), Plate CCXXIII, figure 23,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

    The species is found in the south-west Pacific region, including :

  • Cook Islands,
  • Fiji,
  • Hawaii,
  • New Zealand,
  • Tonga,

    and in Australia in

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


    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Paul Kay, Queensland)

    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 47.5, p. 452.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 144.

    James Francis Stephens,
    Mandibulata,
    Illustrations of British entomology, or a synopsis of indigenous insects, containing their generic and specific distinctions, with an account of their metamorphoses, times of appearance, localities, food, and economy, as far as practicable,
    London : Baldwin & Cradock, Vol. 3 (1830), p. 128, No. 6421.

    previous
    back
    caterpillar
    Australian
    Australian Butterflies
    butterflies
    Australian
    home
    Lepidoptera
    Australian
    Australian Moths
    moths
    next
    next
    caterpillar

    (updated 6 August 2011, 17 September 2022)