Notocrypta waigensis (Plötz, 1882)
Banded Demon
 (one synonym : Plesioneura proserpine Butler, 1883)
HESPERIINAE,   HESPERIIDAE,   HESPERIOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Notocrypta waigensis
(Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Sydney, New South Wales)

The Caterpillar of this species is long, thin, and pale green, with a brown head. It feeds on various plants in ZINGIBERACEAE, including:

  • Australian Native Ginger ( Alpinia caerulea ), and
  • Australian Native Cardamon ( Hornstedtia scottiana).

    It lives in a tube made out of a rolled leaf joined by silk at the edges.

    It pupates in its tubular shelter.

    Notocrypta waigensis
    (Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

    The adult butterfly is black with a broad white band across each forewing, and a few white dots near the forewing wingtips. The wing undersurfaces are similar to the upper surfaces. The wing span is about 4 cms.

    Notocrypta waigensis
    (Photo: courtesy of the Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

    The species is found in

  • Islands of Indonesia, and
  • New Guinea,

    and also in Australia in

  • Queensland.

    The butterfly bears a remarkable similarity to some of the (unrelated) day-flying Arctiid moths, for example:

  • Nyctamera amicus.

    Further reading :

    Michael F. Braby,
    Butterflies of Australia, CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 2000, vol. 1, pp. 192-193.

    Carl Plötz,
    Einige Hesperiinen-Gattungen und deren Arten,
    Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift,
    Volume 26, Part 2 (1882), p. 263, No. 6.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 232.

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    (updated 3 May 2008, 15 November 2013, 21 June 2019, 29 May 2020)