Barasa cymatistis

Barasa cymatistis (Meyrick, 1889)
(one synonym : Blenina alena Swinhoe, 1918)
NOLINAE, NOLIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA

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

Barasa cymatistis
caterpillar being attacked by a
Glossy Shield Bug (Cermatulus nasalis)
(Photo: courtesy of Peter Chew, Brisbane, Queensland)

The caterpillar of this species is pale brown with yellow verrucae bearing tufts of white hair. The head is orange with two black or dark orange dorsal marks on the prothroax.

(Photo: courtesy of Peter Chew, Brisbane, Queensland)

The caterpillar has been found feeding on

Brush Box (Lophostemon confertus, MYRTACEAE).

(Photo: courtesy of Peter Chew, Brisbane, Queensland)

The caterpillar pupates on the underside of a dead leaf, covering its cocoon with pieces of dead leaf.

(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult moth as pale fawn forewings with a pattern of darker smudges and dots, including prominent dark marks about halfway along the costa. The hindwings are white at the base, shading to pale fawn at the margins. The moth has a wingspan of about 3 cms.

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

The Species has been found in :

New Guinea,

as well as in Australia in:

Northern Territory, and

Queensland.

male, drawing by George Francis Hampson,,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalćnć in the British Museum,
Noctuidć, Volume XI (1912), Plate CLXXXIV, figure 24,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.