Scopula rubraria (Doubleday, 1843)
Reddish Wave
(one synonym : Acidalia figlinaria Guenée, 1857)
STERRHINAE,   GEOMETRIDAE,   GEOMETROIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Scopula rubraria
female

The Caterpillars of this species eat leaves from a variety of herbaceous plants, including :

  • Buckhorn Plantain ( Plantago lanceolata, PLANTAGINACEAE ).

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

    The adult moth has brown wings with zigzag markings, and a dark spot near the centre of each wing. Various individuals have different degrees of contrast in the markings. The undersides are rather like the upper surfaces. The males have feathery antennae. The females have banded thread-like antennae. The moths have a wingspan of about 2 cms.

    Scopula rubraria
    underside
    (Photo: courtesy of Laura Levens, Upper Beaconsfield)

    The eggs are off-white and ellipsoidal. They are laid in disorganised strings.

    Scopula rubraria

    The species is found in

  • New Zealand,

    as well as over most of Australia, including

  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland,
  • Norfolk Island,
  • New South Wales,
  • Australian Capital Territory,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Scopula rubraria
    paler form of male
    (Photo: courtesy of Ken Harris, Morwell Park, Victoria)


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia,
    Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 37.15, pp. 67, 375.

    Edward Doubleday, with Adam White :
    List of the annulose animals hitherto recorded as found in New Zealand with descriptions of some new species,
    in Ernest Dieffenbach: Travels in New Zealand,
    John Murray, London 1843, Volume 2, p. 286, No. 122.

    Achille Guenée,
    in Boisduval & Guenée: Uranides et Phalénites,
    Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
    Volume 9, Part 9 (1857), p. 454, No. 752, and also Plate 12, fig. 8.

    Peter B. McQuillan, Jan A. Forrest, David Keane, & Roger Grund,
    Caterpillars, moths, and their plants of Southern Australia,
    Butterfly Conservation South Australia Inc., Adelaide (2019), p. 105.

    Peter Marriott ,
    Moths of Victoria: Part 3 ,
    Waves & Carpets - GEOMETROIDEA (C),
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2011, pp. 6-9.


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    (updated 17 September 2011, 1 January 2015, 13 July 2020, 27 January 2021)