Lactura cristata (Butler, 1886)
 (one synonym is Mieza picta Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875)
LACTURIDAE,   ZYGAENOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Lactura cristata
(Photo: courtesy of Peter Hendry, Gin Gin, Queensland)

This adult moth has forewings which are brown, each with seven variable pale yellow spots. The hindwings are orange shading to brown at the margins. The wingspan is about 2 cms.

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

The species occurs in

  • Queensland, and
  • New South Wales.

    Lactura cristata
    male, drawing by Felder & Rogenhofer, listed as Mieza picta    ,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde,
    Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (1874), Tafel CXXXVIII, Fig. 49,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    Further reading :

    Arthur G. Butler,
    Descriptions of 21 new genera and 103 new species of Lepidoptera Heterocera from the Australian region,
    Transactions of the Entomological Society of London,
    1886, Part 4, p. 383, No. 22.

    Rudolf Felder & Alois F. Rogenhofer,
    Zoologischer Theil: Lepidoptera,
    Reise der Osterreichischen Fregatte Novara,
    Part 9, Band 2, Abtheilung 2 (5) (1875), p. 14, and also Plate 138, fig. 49.

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    (written 26 December 2018, updated 25 July 2022)