Heliocheilus aleurota (Lower, 1902)
 (one synonym is Canthylidia cana Turner, 1943)
HELIOTHINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


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

The adult moths are pale brown. The males have variable vague light and dark stripes and dark marks on each forewing.


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

The females sometimes show just dark veins. The wingspan of both sexes is about 2 cms.


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

This species has been taken in

  • Western Australia,
  • Northern Territory,
  • Queensland,
  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria, and
  • South Australia.


    male, drawing by George F. Hampson, listed as Melicleptria aleurota    ,
    Catalogue of the Noctuidæ in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Volume IV (1903), Plate LVII, fig. 21,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    Further reading :

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Volume 26 (1902), p. 641.

    Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
    Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, pp. 34-35.

    Marcus Matthews,
    Heliothine Moths of Australia:
    A Guide to Pest Bollworms and Related Noctuid Groups,
    CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne 1999, pp. 46, 51-52, 153, 196, Plate 6.

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    (updated 7 August 2011, 15 August 2019, 26 December 2020)