The adult moth has wings that are brown with a purple sheen, and have a cream and yellow pattern near the base. The wing margins are chequered, and the forewing tips are recurved. The abdomen has cream and yellow banding, and a brown tip. The wingspan is about 2 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of Jean-Francois Landry, CNC, and Zhaofu Yang, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The species has been found across south-east Asia and the Pacific, including

as well as in Australia in

The species was introduced to

drawing by George F. Hampson,
Illustrations of Typical Specimens of Lepidoptera Heterocera in the Collection of the British Museum,
Lepidoptera Heterocera of the Nilgiri District, Volume 8 (1891), Plate CLV, fig. 13,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Gerstein Library, University of Toronto.

Further reading :

George F. Hampson,
Lepidoptera Heterocera of the Nilgiri District,
Illustrations of Typical Specimens of Lepidoptera Heterocera in the Collection of the British Museum,
Volume 8 (1891), p. 137, and also Plate 155, fig. 13

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 32.

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(updated 20 November 2007, 13 October 2021)