Nausinoe geometralis

Nausinoe geometralis (Guenée, 1854)
(previously known as Lepyrodes geometralis)
Leaf Worm
SPILOMELINAE, CRAMBIDAE, PYRALOIDEA

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

Nausinoe geometralis
(Photo: courtesy of Simon Ong, Durack, Western Australia)

These Caterpillars are pale green with several black warts on each segment, and with a dark brown head. They live communally in a nest of webbed leaves on their foodplant. They are an agricultural pest, attacking for example:

Jasmine (Jasminum species, OLEACEAE), and

Aubergine (Solanum melongena, SOLANACEAE).

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

The adult moth is brown with half a dozen white spots of various shapes on each wing, and also with one vague dark mark on each forewing, and two on each hindwing. The abdomen is brown with intersegmental rings of long white hairs. The moth has a wingspan of about 2 cms.

The species has been found in Africa and Asia, for example in

China,

Ghana,

India,

and also in Australia in

Western Australia,

Northern Territory, and

Queensland.

drawing by Achille Guenée, listed as Lepyrodes pueritia,,
Deltoïdes et Pyralites, Histoire Naturelle des Insectes; Spécies Général des Lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 8 (1854), Plate VIII, No. 6,
Image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

Further reading :

Achille Guenée,
Deltoïdes et Pyralites,
in Boisduval & Guenée: Histoire Naturelle des Insectes; Spécies Général des Lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 8 (1854), p. 278, No. 271, and also Plate 8, No. 6.

caterpillar

Australian
Australian Butterflies

butterflies

Australian
home

Lepidoptera

Australian
Australian Moths

moths

caterpillar

(written 21 November 2015, updated 5 September 2019, 3 December 2020, 25 November 2021)