Rhynchina obliqualis (Kollar, 1844)
(erroneously : Rhynchina obliquarlis)
HYPENINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Maik Bippus & Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Nick Monaghan, Tewantin, Queensland)

The Caterpillars of this species have been found feeding on :

  • Wandering Jew ( Commelina cyanea, COMMELINACEAE ).


    (Photo: copyright: Luke Enright, Northern Territory)

    The adult moths have brown forewings, each with an oblique straight line from near the wingtip to halfway along the hind-margin, and a submarginal row of dark dots. The hindwings are plain brown. The moths have a wingspan of about 2 cms.


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

    Specimens have been taken in

  • Cook Islands (listed as Hypena masurialis),
  • Japan (listed as Hypena masurialis),
  • Madagascar (listed as Hypena masurialis),
  • Taiwan (listed as Hypena masurialis),

    as well as in Australia in

  • Queensland (listed as Hypena masurialis),
  • New South Wales (listed as Hypena masurialis),
  • Australian Capital Territory (listed as Hypena masurialis), and
  • Norfolk Island (listed as Hypena masurialis).

    Kollar's 1844 holotype was lost for a period, during which the replacement name Hypena masurialis Guenée, 1854, was suggested. Subsequently the holotype was found, and so now the junior replacement name is no longer necessary.

    Rhynchina obliqualis is superficially very similar to Hypena obacerralis, and they are confused in many collections. We hope we got the above photos correctly identified.


    Photo of holotype: Martin Lödl,
    courtesy of Zoologisch-Botanische Datenbank/Zoological-Botanical Database,
    Zur Wiederauffindung der Type von Rhynchina obliqualis (Kollar, 1844) (Hypena) comb.n. im Naturhistorischen Museum in Wien, nebst Bemerkungen zur Synonymie (Inserta: Lepidoptera: Noctuidae),
    Ann. Naturhistrisches Museum Wien,
    Volume 96 B (1994), p. 370, figs. 1-3.


    Further reading :

    Ian F.B. Common,
    Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, p. 448.

    Achille Guenée,
    Deltoïdes et Pyralites,
    in Boisduval & Guenée:
    Histoire Naturelle des Insectes; Spécies Général des Lépidoptères,
    Volume 9, Part 8 (1854), p. 38, No. 40.

    Martin Lödl,
    Zur Wiederauffindung der Type von Rhynchina obliqualis (Kollar, 1844) (Hypena) comb.n. im Naturhistorischen Museum in Wien, nebst Bemerkungen zur Synonymie (Inserta: Lepidoptera: Noctuidae),
    Ann. Naturhistrisches Museum Wien,
    Volume 96 B (1994), pp. 369-372.

    Vincenz Kollar & Ludwig Redtenbacher,
    Aufzählung und Beschreibung der von Freiherrn Carl v. Hügel auf seiner Reise durch Kaschmir und des Himaleya Gebirge gesammelten Insecten,
    in Freiherrn Carl v. Hügel:
    Kaschmir und das Reich der Siek,
    Stuttgart, Volume 4, Part 2 (1844), pp. 491-492.


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    (updated 15 April 2013, 8 August 2024)