Nausinoe pueritia (Cramer, [1870])
(previously known as Phalaena pueritia)
SPILOMELINAE,   CRAMBIDAE,   PYRALOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Bart Hacobian & Stella Crossley


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

These Caterpillars are green and live singly in a rolled leaf of their foodplant. They have been found feeding on the leaves of a hybrid

  • Chinese Bellflower ( Abutilon species, MALVACEAE ).

    The caterpillar grows to a length of about 2 cms.


    drawing by Pieter Cramer, listed as Phalaena pueritia
    ,
    Uitlandsche kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen,
    Amsterdam Baalde, vol. 3 (1782), Plate 264, fig. E,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    The adult moth of this species is pale brown, with complex white markings edged in dark brown over each wing, including a long hook-shaped mark near the tornus of each hindwing. It has a long brown and white abdomen. In its resting position, it holds its antennae swept back over the forewings. The moth has a wingspan of about 3 cms.

    The species is found over tropical south-east Asia, including :

  • Thailand,

    as well as in Australia in

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


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 9.9, p. 357.

    Pieter Cramer,
    Description de Papillons Exotiques,
    Uitlandsche kapellen voorkomende in de drie waereld-deelen,
    Amsterdam Baalde, Volume 3 (1782), p. 128, and also Plate 264, fig. E.

    Peter Hendry,
    The Return of the Crambidae,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 54 (September 2009), pp. 23-25,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 43.


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    (updated 11 December 2012)