Nacoleia rhoeoalis (Walker, 1859) (one synonym : Botys hypsidesalis Walker, 1859) SPILOMELINAE,   CRAMBIDAE,   PYRALOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Bart Hacobian & Stella Crossley

In captivity, these Caterpillars have been raised on the dead leaves of Gum trees. They probably live in the ground litter in schlerophyll woodlands.

The adult moth is brown with white bars and dark zizzag lines on the forewings. It has a shiny purplish iridescence. It has a wingspan of about 1 cm. This is quite a variable species, and the genus is in need of taxonomic revision, so it may eventually be renamed.

(Photo courtesy of Wendy Moore, Melbourne, Victoria)

As may be seen on the above photograph, the moths of the genus Nacoleia are unusual in having a bend in the antennae.

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

The species occurs in :

Western Australia.

underside
(Photo: courtsesy of Bruce Anstee, Riverstone, Sydney, New South Wales)

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Further reading :

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 34.2, p. 357.

Francis Walker,
Pyralides,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 19 (1859), p. 933.

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(updated 13 September 2011, 26 January 2019, 13 September 2020)