Hypena obacerralis (Walker, 1859)
 (one synonym : Hypena simplicalis Zeller, 1852)
HYPENINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Hypena obacerralis
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult moth has brown forewings, each with a line from the middle of the hind-margin to 3/4 the way along the costa separating a darker basal half from a paler marginal half, which contains a diffuse dark submarginal band. The hindwings are plain brown. The wingspan is about 2 cms.


Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, from
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
listed as Hypena masurialis Guenée, 1854, (type specimen from India)

The species has been found in

  • Congo,

    as well as in Australia in

  • Queensland (listed as a synonym of Hypena simplicalis), and
  • New South Wales.

    The names Hypena obacerralis (type specimens from Congo and Sri Lanka) and its synonym Hypena simplicalis (type specimen from Natal) are controversial. There is a suspicion that after the species migrated from Asia to Australia, its separate evolution by genetic drift in isolated Australia led to the development of a superficially similar but genetically different, so far unrecognised, peculiarly Australian species.

    Further reading :

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 164.

    Francis Walker,
    Deltoids,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 16 (1859), pp. 51, 53-54. No. 58.

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    (written 25 May 2020, updated 30 July 2025)